Heterogeneity of wound outcome measures in RCTs of treatments for VLUs: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Gethin, G; Killeen, F; Devane, D

2015-05-01

Venous leg ulcers (VLUs) affect up to 4% of the population aged over 65 years. Outcomes of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in VLUs are important to guide clinical and resource decision making. Our objective was to identify what endpoints and wound bed outcomes were assessed in RCTs in VLUs; how these were assessed and what reference was made to validity and reliability of methods used. A systematic review of all full text RCTs, published in English, from 1998-2013. Our criteria were met by 102 studies. There were 78 different endpoints recorded, the majority (n=34) related to healing and were evaluated at 12 different times points. Size was the most frequently reported outcome measure (n=99), with photographs, tissue type, exudate, odour and pain also recorded. There was poor reporting of methods used to assess outcomes. Visual analogue scales predominated as a method of assessment, but 95% of studies made no reference to the validity or reliability of assessment methods. Future research in VLUs requires standards for measuring outcomes with acceptable inter-rater reliability and validated measures of patient-reported outcomes.

Quality Street: Encountering Higher Education's Accountabilities

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Leihy, Peodair; Salazar, José Miguel

2017-01-01

This article offers a new approach to quality, focusing on the dimensions that gather around it. The mismatched goals of controlling and improving higher education continue to trouble the conceptual clarity of accountability. Quality in higher education emerges as something agreed upon (to varying efficacy) through accountability measures, rather…

APPROACH TO QUALITY ASSURANCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

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Zora Arsovski

2007-03-01

Full Text Available Quality assurance in higher education is streamed in two interconnected concepts: (1 quality management according to ISO 9000 and (2 Bologna process. In this paper both concepts are presented, with point on internal state and term plan activities for quality improvement in higher education in Serbia.

Quality in Higher Education: United Arab Emirates Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Soomro, Tariq Rahim; Ahmad, Reyaz

2012-01-01

Quality in higher education is the major concern among researchers. Managing quality in higher education in a multicultural population with different approaches is not only challenging but an uphill task. This paper will focus on quality concern in higher education keeping in view, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) perspectives. A model to maintain…

GENERIC QUALITY STANDARDS VS. SPECIFIC QUALITY STANDARDS: THE CASE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

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Laila El Abbadi

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Quality as a new requirement for the field of higher education leads institutions to seek to satisfy generic or specific quality standards imposed directly or indirectly by its customers. The aim of this study is to compare between ISO9001, as a generic quality standard, and the Code of Practice of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA, as a specific quality standard. A correlation matrix is drawn and correlation rates are calculated to show similarities and differences between them. This paper shows, first, that ISO9001 and QAA Code of Practice are compatible. Second, implementing a quality management system in accordance with ISO9001 requirements can constitute an adequate framework for the application of the QAA Code of Practice requirements. Third, to make the ISO9001 requirements closer to a specific quality standard in the field of higher education, it is recommended to complete these standards by specific requirements to the field of higher education.

Student Mobility, Dosage, and Principal Stratification in Clustered RCTs of Education Interventions

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Schochet, Peter Z.

2012-01-01

This article introduces an alternative impact parameter for group-based RCTs with student mobility--the survivor average causal effect ("SACE")--that pertains to the subpopulation of original cohort students who would remain in their baseline study schools in either the treatment or control condition. The "SACE" parameter has a clear…

Quality Assurance: Strategic Choices for Higher Education in Turkey

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Mahmut ÖZER

2011-01-01

Full Text Available As the number of students and higher education institutions in the world increases and there is a growing difficulty in financing the higher education systems, decision-makers have begun to show more interest in quality assurance. As quality assurance is given special attention in European countries, developing countries such as Turkey are interested in importing quality assurance systems. It is not possible to set quality assurance without sensitivity toward quality and without having quality as a cultural practice. The most likely encountered quality assurance approach in the world is that the higher education institution itself is responsible for its quality. In addition, external quality assurance procedures used are based on (academic peer review rather than on bureaucratic evaluations. Moreover, there is a lively debate across the world regarding the bureaucratic regulations of the quality assurance agencies and institutions that restrict the autonomy of higher education institutions. Without taking into consideration of the existing centralized structure of the higher education system in Turkey, of meeting social demands for the higher education, and of current higher education enrollment rates, the possible establishment of a quality assurance mechanism that may have sanctions on universities in Turkey is a threat to already limited autonomy of universities and is having a risk of additional bureaucratic burden. By laying out the roles and responsibilities of Turkish Council of Higher Education, the government and universities, this article discusses policies that should be adopted regarding the quality assurance.

Undergraduate Confidence When Undertaking Root Canal Treatment and Their Perception of the Quality of Their Endodontic Education

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James Puryer

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The General Dental Council expects graduating dentists to be competent at treating pulpal disease. Previous studies have found dental undergraduates to have low levels of confidence with respect to endodontic treatments. The aim of this study was to investigate the confidence of undergraduate dental students at the University of Bristol when performing root canal treatment, and to investigate their perception of the quality of their endodontic education. An anonymous questionnaire, based upon one used in a 2015 study at Cardiff University, was distributed to all (n = 204 undergraduate students in Years 3–5 at the University of Bristol. The results were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS. There was a 59% (n = 120 response rate and a significant (p < 0.01 difference in confidence levels for root canal treatments (RCTs completed between these students. All (100% Year-5 students felt confident in completing anterior RCTs, and 91% felt confident in completing posterior RCTs. The majority (93% of Year-4 students felt confident in completing anterior RCTs, and 77% felt confident in completing posterior RCTs. Over one-half (56% of Year-3 students felt confident in anterior RCTs and 17% in posterior RCTs. With respect to the individual stages of RCT (access cavity, cleaning and shaping of root canal system, and obturation/filling, results showed that there was a significant difference (p < 0.01 in confidence levels between year groups. Many students thought the amount of time spent on endodontic teaching and the quality of teaching to be satisfactory. Improvements suggested for future endodontic teaching included higher numbers of staff supervision and additional endodontic practice on extracted teeth before seeing patients. There was a strong association between students’ clinical experience and their levels of confidence when completing RCT. Increasing the amount of clinical experience of RCTs could

Fat type in phytosterol products influence their cholesterol-lowering potential: A systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs.

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Ferguson, Jessica J A; Stojanovski, Elizabeth; MacDonald-Wicks, Lesley; Garg, Manohar L

2016-10-01

The most common form of phytosterol (PS) fortified foods are fat spreads and dairy products. The predominant fats used are soybean/sunflower (SS) or rapeseed/canola (RC) oils and animal fat (D) in dairy products. This review aimed to investigate whether the carrier fat is a determinant of the hypocholesterolaemic effects of PS fortified foods. Databases were searched using relevant keywords and published RCTs from 1990 investigating the effects of dietary PS intervention (≥1.5g per day) on total cholesterol and LDL-C were included. After methodological quality assessment and data extraction, a total of 32 RCTs (RC, n=15; SS, n=9; D, n=8) were included. As expected, all fat groups significantly reduced TC and LDL-C (p<0.01). When compared across different carrier fats, RC as the main carrier fat, reduced LDL-C significantly more than the SS spreads (p=0.01). Therefore, a combination of monounsaturated fatty acid rich spread with adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids (as evident in RC spreads) may be the superior carrier fat for the delivery of PS for optimal blood cholesterol-lowering. The findings of this research provide useful evidence for optimising the hypocholesterolaemic effects of PS and support further investigation into the possible mechanisms behind these findings. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Assessment of the Quality Management Models in Higher Education

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Basar, Gulsun; Altinay, Zehra; Dagli, Gokmen; Altinay, Fahriye

2016-01-01

This study involves the assessment of the quality management models in Higher Education by explaining the importance of quality in higher education and by examining the higher education quality assurance system practices in other countries. The qualitative study was carried out with the members of the Higher Education Planning, Evaluation,…

Quality assessment in higher education using the SERVQUALQ model

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Sabina Đonlagić

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina is striving towards growth and increased employment and it has been proven by empirical studies worldwide that higher education contributes to socio-economic development of a country. Universities are important for generation, preservation and dissemination of knowledge in order to contribute to socio-economic benefits of a country. Higher education institutions are being pressured to improve value for their activities and providing quality higher education service to students should be taken seriously. In this paper we will address the emerging demand for quality in higher education. Higher education institutions should assess quality of their services and establish methods for improving quality. Activities of quality assurance should be integrated into the management process at higher education institutions. This paper is addressing the issue of service quality measurement in higher education institutions. The most frequently used model in this context is the SERVQUAL model. This model is measuring quality from the students' point of view, since students are considered to be one of the most important stakeholders for a higher education institution. The main objective of this research is to provide empirical evidence that the adapted SERVQAL model can be used in higher education and to identify the service quality gap based on its application at one institution of higher education (Faculty of Economics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Furthermore, results of the gap analysis using the SERVQUAL methodology provide relevant information in which areas improvement is necessary in order to enhance service quality.

Quality of higher education: organisational or educational?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zou, Yihuan; Du, Xiangyun; Rasmussen, Palle

2012-01-01

Based on a study of Chinese university self-evaluation reports, this paper argues that higher education institutions are trying to manage the tensions between educational and organisational quality and the increasing and worldwide concerns about quality assurance. After 30 years of dramatic...... remain an important basis for external review. In an attempt to examine the institutional understanding of quality in higher education, the authors conducted a content analysis study of 53 self-evaluation reports written by a wide range of higher education institutions in China. This study concludes...... educational reform, China has established a nationwide evaluation system for assessing its higher education institutions. This comprehensive system includes a series of procedures for both internal self-evaluation and external peer reviewing, among which self-evaluation reports prepared by each institution...

Ranking Quality in Higher Education: Guiding or Misleading?

Science.gov (United States)

Bergseth, Brita; Petocz, Peter; Abrandt Dahlgren, Madeleine

2014-01-01

The study examines two different models of measuring, assessing and ranking quality in higher education. Do different systems of quality assessment lead to equivalent conclusions about the quality of education? This comparative study is based on the rankings of 24 Swedish higher education institutions. Two ranking actors have independently…

Quality of reporting of randomised controlled trials of herbal interventions in ASEAN Plus Six Countries: a systematic review.

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Pratoomsoot, Chayanin; Sruamsiri, Rosarin; Dilokthornsakul, Piyameth; Chaiyakunapruk, Nathorn

2015-01-01

Many randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of herbal interventions have been conducted in the ASEAN Communities. Good quality reporting of RCTs is essential for assessing clinical significance. Given the importance ASEAN placed on herbal medicines, the reporting quality of RCTs of herbal interventions among the ASEAN Communities deserved a special attention. To systematically review the quality of reporting of RCTs of herbal interventions conducted in the ASEAN Plus Six Countries. Searches were performed using PubMed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, and Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED), from inception through October 2013. These were limited to studies specific to humans and RCTs. Herbal species search terms were based on those listed in the National List of Essential Medicines [NLEM (Thailand, 2011)]. Studies conducted in the ASEAN Plus Six Countries, published in English were included. Seventy-one articles were identified. Thirty (42.25%) RCTs were from ASEAN Countries, whereas 41 RCTs (57.75%) were from Plus Six Group. Adherence to the recommended CONSORT checklist items for reporting of RCTs of herbal interventions among ASEAN Plus Six Countries ranged from 0% to 97.18%. Less than a quarter of the RCTs (18.31%) reported information on standardisation of the herbal products. However, the scope of our interventions of interest was limited to those developed from 20 herbal species listed in the NLEM of Thailand. The present study highlights the need to improve reporting quality of RCTs of herbal interventions across ASEAN Plus Six Communities.

Reinforcing Quality Assurance in Romanian Higher Education

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Ana-Maria Dima

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Since 1993, the quality assurance system in Romania has gained considerable experience. This experience was recently recognized in 2008 by the ENQA: European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education through the admission of ARACIS as a full member of EQAR: the European Quality Assurance Register. The Board of ENQA agreed to grant ARACIS’s full membership of ENQA for five years from 2 June 2009. This article explores the benefits of membership for the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education – ARACIS, comparing to other regional and global quality assurance agencies networks. The common features and differences between ARACIS and other European agencies are questioned through the frameworks of ENQA and INQAAHE as a case study.

Quality Assurance in Higher Education: A Review of Literature

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, Tricia

2015-01-01

This paper examines the literature surrounding quality assurance in global higher education. It provides an overview of accreditation as a mechanism to ensure quality in higher education, examines models of QA, and explores the concept of quality (including definitions of quality and quality assurance). In addition, this paper provides a review of…

Quality of reporting in oncology studies: A systematic analysis of literature reviews and prospects.

Science.gov (United States)

Rivoirard, Romain; Bourmaud, Aurélie; Oriol, Mathieu; Tinquaut, Fabien; Méry, Benoîte; Langrand-Escure, Julien; Vallard, Alexis; Fournel, Pierre; Magné, Nicolas; Chauvin, Franck

2017-04-01

The present review gives an overview of systematic reviews published in peer reviewed Journals analysing quality of reporting in oncology studies. PUBMED and Cochrane library were searched to identify systematic reviews assessing quality of reporting for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies (OBS). Recommendations and primary endpoints used to assess the quality of reporting were described. Intrinsic quality of reporting was analyzed using an Overall Quality Score for literature Reviews (OQSR). Main evaluation themes were overall quality of reporting (20/58) and reporting of Health-Related Quality Of Life (HRQOL) in RCTs (7/58). Reporting recommendations used were not detailed in 56.9% of reviews. Insufficient reporting for the methodological description (randomization, blinding details, and allocation concealment) and the rationale for using specific measure of HRQOL were highlighted. OQSR was significantly higher for reviews published between 2010 and 2014 (after the PRISMA Publication), as compared to those published between 1996-2009 (median OQSR 10 (10-11) versus median OQSR 9 (6-10) respectively, p=0.0053). Intrinsic quality of reporting is satisfactory and has been improved in the last years. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nullifying quality: the marketasation of higher education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bendixen, Carsten; Jacobsen, Jens Christian

2017-01-01

higher education. In the long run it will hardly benefit educational programmes if institutions of higher educations fail to ‘stand for’ quality that, in the very least, can supplement the fulfilment of politically determined targets and standards. In this way the market will have not only graduates who......The increasing dominance of educational markets means that quality of higher education has the character of open signifiers of periodic occurrence, embedded institutionally as ways of consensual communication on how to go on as smoothly as possible. This promotes the growth of context dependent...... nullification processes. On the other hand, institutions have to adopt standards in education as a measure of outcome indicators for benchmarking. When quality is replaced by standards and if standards are equivalent to labour market relevance this might signal the beginning of overall external control over...

On Q: Causing Quality in Higher Education.

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Seymour, Daniel T.

This book presents college and university education as a quality-oriented service with students, parents, and legislators as customers demanding quality. It attempts to blend the concept of strategic management of quality in industry with the latest thinking on the administration of higher education. The first chapter discusses the importance of…

Apropos of the Quality Management in Higher Education

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A. G. Kislov

2012-01-01

Full Text Available The paper is devoted to introduction and implementation of quality management system in the sphere of Russian higher education. The research demanded the prehistory observation of the above processes, their legal bases analysis, as well as setting the existing practices of the state control and supervision of education in compliance with the principles of TQM (Total Quality Management. Different normative acts and documents have been reviewed concerning accreditation of higher educational establishments, and determining the state policy of quality improvement of the higher school functioning. The author emphasizes that participation of different organizations - including educational ones – in certification procedures and competitions in the quality sphere is considered voluntary according to the Russian legislation. However, for getting the state accreditation educational establishments have no other way apart from setting the internal structures responsible for students training quality. The above structures in educational establishments look rather strange and alien duplicating in their best the state control and supervision system. They appear to be quite expansive for educational establishments and demanding extra time and effort from the staff. In conclusion the author points out that the state policy forcing the quality management issues reflects the interests of certain social groups, namely those who directly participate in external supervision of higher educa- tional institutions. The research findings can be applied while correcting the educational policy of the Russian Federation, and developing the concepts of regulatory legal acts in the higher educational sphere.

From Quality Assurance to Quality Enhancement in the European Higher Education Area

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Gvaramadze, Irakli

2008-01-01

This article focuses on recent trends in quality assurance initiatives, analyses how the European Higher Education Area promotes quality enhancement mechanisms and their implications for quality cultures in universities. It presents and discusses two approaches towards quality enhancement both at the institutional and programme level: 1. Quality…

IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM ACTIVITIES OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

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Z. M. Sultalieva

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract. The aim of the article is the improvement of quality assessment system of higher education institutions in the aspect of management. The problems of quality improvement are revealed and classified. The analysis of criteria assessment sets used to define the efficiency of higher education institutions activity is carried out. The components of quality of higher education institutions activity are specified. The structural model of quality assessment system of higher education institutions activity is offered. The analysis of macro environment of a university based on the method of strategic management is carried out, i.e. PEST analysis. As a result of the research a new model of macro criteria model of quality assessment system of higher education institutions, characterizing quality management as an approach to university efficiency is offered, moreover, this system can define the level of its competitiveness in the aspect of quality management. 

Randomized trials published in higher vs. lower impact journals differ in design, conduct, and analysis.

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Bala, Malgorzata M; Akl, Elie A; Sun, Xin; Bassler, Dirk; Mertz, Dominik; Mejza, Filip; Vandvik, Per Olav; Malaga, German; Johnston, Bradley C; Dahm, Philipp; Alonso-Coello, Pablo; Diaz-Granados, Natalia; Srinathan, Sadeesh K; Hassouneh, Basil; Briel, Matthias; Busse, Jason W; You, John J; Walter, Stephen D; Altman, Douglas G; Guyatt, Gordon H

2013-03-01

To compare methodological characteristics of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in higher vs. lower impact Core Clinical Journals. We searched MEDLINE for RCTs published in 2007 in Core Clinical Journals. We randomly sampled 1,140 study reports in a 1:1 ratio in higher (five general medicine journals with the highest total citations in 2007) and lower impact journals. Four hundred sixty-nine RCTs proved eligible: 219 in higher and 250 in lower impact journals. RCTs in higher vs. lower impact journals had larger sample sizes (median, 285 vs. 39), were more likely to receive industry funding (53% vs. 28%), declare concealment of allocation (66% vs. 36%), declare blinding of health care providers (53% vs. 41%) and outcome adjudicators (72% vs. 54%), report a patient-important primary outcome (69% vs. 50%), report subgroup analyses (64% vs. 26%), prespecify subgroup hypotheses (42% vs. 20%), and report a test for interaction (54% vs. 27%); P journals were more likely to report methodological safeguards against bias and patient-important outcomes than those published in lower impact journals. However, sufficient limitations remain such that publication in a higher impact journal does not ensure low risk of bias. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Exploring the Notion of Quality in Quality Higher Education Assessment in a Collaborative Future

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Maguire, Kate; Gibbs, Paul

2013-01-01

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the debate on the notion of quality in higher education with particular focus on "objectifying through articulation" the assessment of quality by professional experts. The article gives an overview of the differentiations of quality as used in higher education. It explores a substantial…

A Conceptual Analysis of Quality in Quality Function Deployment-Based Contexts of Higher Education

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Matorera, Douglas

2015-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to assess and evaluate how higher education institutions (HEIs) using Quality Function Deployment draw out the relevancy and potential of the model in shaping their concept of "Quality" and how that Quality can be assured in higher education institutions' (HEIs') programmes. An intensive literature review was…

Is quality assurance in higher education contextually relative ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

It does this by raising questions such as whether quality in higher education is the same as, for example, quality of clothing or the quality of meat in local butcheries. The article questions ... AJOL African Journals Online. HOW TO USE AJOL.

The impact of specialized palliative care on cancer patients' health-related quality of life: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Kassianos, Angelos P; Ioannou, Myria; Koutsantoni, Marianna; Charalambous, Haris

2018-01-01

Specialized palliative care (SPC) is currently underutilized or provided late in cancer care. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to critically evaluate the impact of SPC on patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Five databases were searched through June 2016. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and prospective studies using a pre- and post- assessment of HRQoL were included. The PRISMA reporting statement was followed. Criteria from available checklists were used to evaluate the studies' quality. A meta-analysis followed using random-effect models separately for RCTs and non-RCTs. Eleven studies including five RCTs and 2939 cancer patients published between 2001 and 2014 were identified. There was improved HRQoL in patients with cancer following SPC especially in symptoms like pain, nausea, and fatigue as well as improvement of physical and psychological functioning. Less or no improvements were observed in social and spiritual domains. In general, studies of inpatients showed a larger benefit from SPC than studies of outpatients whereas patients' age and treatment duration did not moderate the impact of SPC. Methodological shortcomings of included studies include high attrition rates, low precision, and power and poor reporting of control procedures. The methodological problems and publication bias call for higher-quality studies to be designed, funded, and published. However, there is a clear message that SPC is multi-disciplinary and aims at palliation of symptoms and burden in line with current recommendations.

Have CONSORT guidelines improved the quality of reporting of randomised controlled trials published in public health dentistry journals?

Science.gov (United States)

Savithra, Prakash; Nagesh, Lakshminarayan Shetty

2013-01-01

To assess a) whether the quality of reporting of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) has improved since the formulation of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement and b) whether there is any difference in reporting of RCTs between the selected public health dentistry journals. A hand search of the journals of public health dentistry was performed and four journals were identified for the study. They were Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology (CDOE), Community Dental Health (CDH), Journal of Public Health Dentistry (JPHD) and Oral Health and Preventive Dentistry (OHPD). A total of 114 RCTs published between 1990 and 2009 were selected. CONSORT guidelines were applied to each selected article in order to assess and determine any improvement since the publication of CONSORT guidelines. The chi-square test was employed to determine any statistical significant difference in quality of reporting of RCTs before and after the publication of the CONSORT guidelines. A comparison was also done to determine any statistically significant difference in quality of reporting of RCTs between the selected journals. Title, abstract, discussion and conclusion sections of the selected articles showed adherence to the CONSORT guidelines, whereas the compliance was poor with respect to the methodology section. The quality of reporting of RCTs is generally poor in public health dentistry journals. Overall, the quality of reporting has not substantially improved since the publication of CONSORT guidelines.

Assessing quality of reports on randomized clinical trials in nursing journals.

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Parent, Nicole; Hanley, James A

2009-01-01

Several surveys have presented the quality of reports on randomized clinical trials (RCTs) published in general and specialty medical journals. The aim of these surveys was to raise scientific consciousness on methodological aspects pertaining to internal and external validity. These reviews have suggested that the methodological quality could be improved. We conducted a survey of reports on RCTs published in nursing journals to assess their methodological quality. The features we considered included sample size, flow of participants, assessment of baseline comparability, randomization, blinding, and statistical analysis. We collected data from all reports of RCTs published between January 1994 and December 1997 in Applied Nursing Research, Heart & Lung and Nursing Research. We hand-searched the journals and included all 54 articles in which authors reported that individuals have been randomly allocated to distinct groups. We collected data using a condensed form of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement for structured reporting of RCTs (Begg et al., 1996). Sample size calculations were included in only 22% of the reports. Only 48% of the reports provided information about the type of randomization, and a mere 22% described blinding strategies. Comparisons of baseline characteristics using hypothesis tests were abusively produced in more than 76% of the reports. Excessive use and unstructured reports of significance testing were common (59%), and all reports failed to provide magnitude of treatment differences with confidence intervals. Better methodological quality in reports of RCTs will contribute to increase the standards of nursing research.

Effectiveness and implementation aspects of interventions for preventing falls in elderly people in long-term care facilities: a systematic review of RCTs.

Science.gov (United States)

Neyens, Jacques C; van Haastregt, Jolanda C; Dijcks, Béatrice P; Martens, Mark; van den Heuvel, Wim J; de Witte, Luc P; Schols, Jos M

2011-07-01

There is extensive literature on interventions to prevent or reduce falls in elderly people. These findings, however, were based mainly on studies of community-living persons. The primary aim of the present study was to report the effectiveness and implementation aspects of interventions aimed at reducing falls in elderly residents in long-term care facilities: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and hand searching of reference lists of included RCTs. RCTs that assessed fall incidents (falls, fallers, recurrent fallers, fall-related injuries) among elderly residents in long-term care facilities were included in this narrative review. Two independent reviewers abstracted data: general program characteristics (setting, population, intervention program) and outcomes, detailed program characteristics (assessment, intervention content, individually tailored, multidisciplinary), and implementation aspects (feasibility, implications for practice). The CONSORT Statement 2001 Checklist was used regarding the quality of reporting RCTs. Twenty trials met the inclusion criteria. Seven trials, 4 multifactorial and 3 monofactorial, showed a significant reduction in the fall rate, the percentage of recurrent fallers, or both the fall rate and the percentage of persons sustaining femoral fractures. The positive effective programs were as follows: a comprehensive structured individual assessment with specific safety recommendations; a multidisciplinary program including general strategies tailored to the setting and strategies tailored specifically to residents; a multifaceted intervention including education, environmental adaptation, balance, resistance training, and hip protector; calcium plus vitamin D supplementation; vitamin D supplementation; a clinical medication review; and a multifactorial intervention (fall risk evaluation, specific and general interventions). In general, because of the limited number of included trials

Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Proposals for Consultation.

Science.gov (United States)

Higher Education Funding Council for England, Bristol.

This document sets out for consultation proposals for a revised method for quality assurance of teaching and learning in higher education. The proposals cover: (1) the objectives and principles of quality assurance; (2) an approach to quality assurance based on external audit principles; (3) the collection and publication of information; (4)…

Perceptions of Higher Education Quality at Three Universities in Vietnam

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Huong Thi; Starkey, Louise

2016-01-01

Purpose: Vietnam is experiencing rapid expansion in the provision of higher education that requires quality assurance appropriate for the Vietnamese-centralised Confucian cultural context. This paper aims to examine the concept of quality from the perspectives of academic leaders, quality assurance members and academics at three higher education…

Is quality of higher educational institutions in Western Balkan real?

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Živaljević Aleksandra

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a survey conducted in November of 2013 in 120 higher education institutions in the Western Balkans Countries, with purpose to determine which models are used for quality improvement in Western Balkans higher educational institutions, and whether critical conditions for continuous quality improvement have been met by applying those models. Data were obtained by using questionnaire which consisted of 24 questions related to 2 previously defined hypotheses. Gathered data were tested with Student's t test to determine if there is a significant difference between the groups of higher educational institutions which use different quality models, as well as between private and public higher educational institutions. Authors argue that the rules imposed by Governments do not provide sufficient incentive for meeting the critical conditions for the continuous quality improvement. Legal framework and mandatory accreditation conducted by government bodies lead higher educational institutions to fulfil the formal requirements, distancing them from the essence of quality management, i.e. from self-criticism and motivation to consistently deliver better results than the previous ones and giving them the illusion of achieving quality through compliance with formal criteria.

Quality Improvement in Virtual Higher Education: A Grounded Theory Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Mahdiuon, Rouhollah; Masoumi, Davoud; Farasatkhah, Maghsoud

2017-01-01

The article aims to explore the attributes of quality and quality improvement including the process and specific actions associated with these attributes--that contribute enhancing quality in Iranian Virtual Higher Education (VHE) institutions. A total of 16 interviews were conducted with experts and key actors in Iranian virtual higher education.…

Reporting Quality of Randomized, Controlled Trials Evaluating Combined Chemoradiotherapy in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, Yu-Pei; Chen, Lei; Li, Wen-Fei; Lee, Anne W.M.; Vermorken, Jan B.; Wee, Joseph; O'Sullivan, Brian; Eisbruch, Avraham; Lin, Jin-Ching; Mai, Hai-Qiang; Zhang, Li; Guo, Ying; Lin, Ai-Hua; Sun, Ying

2017-01-01

Purpose: To comprehensively assess the reporting quality of randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and to identify significant predictors of quality. Methods and Materials: Two investigators searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for RCTs published between January 1988 and December 2015 that assessed the effect of combined chemoradiotherapy for NPC. The overall quality of each report was assessed using a 28-point overall quality score (OQS) based on the 2010 Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. To provide baseline data for further evaluation, we also investigated the reporting quality of certain important issues in detail, including key methodologic items (allocation concealment, blinding, intention-to-treat principle), endpoints, follow-up, subgroup analyses, and adverse events. Results: We retrieved 24 relevant RCTs including 6591 patients. Median 2010 OQS was 15.5 (range, 10-24). Half of the items in the 2010 OQS were poorly reported in at least 40% of trials. Multivariable regression models revealed that publication after 2010 and high impact factor were significant predictors of improved 2010 OQS. Additionally, many issues that we consider significant were not reported adequately. Conclusions: Despite publication of the CONSORT statement more than a decade ago, overall reporting quality for RCTs in NPC was unsatisfactory. Additionally, substantial selectivity and heterogeneity exists in reporting of certain crucial issues. This survey provides the first prompt for NPC trial investigators to improve reporting quality according to the CONSORT statement; increased scrutiny and diligence by editors and peer reviewers is also required.

Reporting Quality of Randomized, Controlled Trials Evaluating Combined Chemoradiotherapy in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Yu-Pei; Chen, Lei; Li, Wen-Fei [Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou (China); Lee, Anne W.M. [Department of Clinical Oncology, The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen (China); Vermorken, Jan B. [Department of Medical Oncology, Antwerp University Hospital, Edegem (Belgium); Wee, Joseph [Department of Radiation Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore (Singapore); O' Sullivan, Brian [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Ontario Cancer Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario (Canada); Eisbruch, Avraham [Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States); Lin, Jin-Ching [Department of Radiation Oncology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan (China); Mai, Hai-Qiang [Department of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou (China); Zhang, Li [Department of Medical Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou (China); Guo, Ying [Clinical Trials Centre, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou (China); Lin, Ai-Hua [Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou (China); Sun, Ying [Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Centre, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou (China); and others

2017-05-01

Purpose: To comprehensively assess the reporting quality of randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and to identify significant predictors of quality. Methods and Materials: Two investigators searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for RCTs published between January 1988 and December 2015 that assessed the effect of combined chemoradiotherapy for NPC. The overall quality of each report was assessed using a 28-point overall quality score (OQS) based on the 2010 Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. To provide baseline data for further evaluation, we also investigated the reporting quality of certain important issues in detail, including key methodologic items (allocation concealment, blinding, intention-to-treat principle), endpoints, follow-up, subgroup analyses, and adverse events. Results: We retrieved 24 relevant RCTs including 6591 patients. Median 2010 OQS was 15.5 (range, 10-24). Half of the items in the 2010 OQS were poorly reported in at least 40% of trials. Multivariable regression models revealed that publication after 2010 and high impact factor were significant predictors of improved 2010 OQS. Additionally, many issues that we consider significant were not reported adequately. Conclusions: Despite publication of the CONSORT statement more than a decade ago, overall reporting quality for RCTs in NPC was unsatisfactory. Additionally, substantial selectivity and heterogeneity exists in reporting of certain crucial issues. This survey provides the first prompt for NPC trial investigators to improve reporting quality according to the CONSORT statement; increased scrutiny and diligence by editors and peer reviewers is also required.

Quality and Quality Assurance in Ethiopian Higher Education. Critical Issues and Practical Implications.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kahsay, M.

2012-01-01

This book critically examines quality and quality assurance in the Ethiopian higher education context. More specifically, the main research problem that guided the study was: ‘how and under what circumstances do the public Universities in Ethiopia assure quality of their education, and what

Quality provisioning and accountability in African higher | Maila ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Excellence in educational quality provisioning and accountability is an obligatory function for higher education. Currently certain scholars allege that poor provisioning and lack of accountability are rife in most higher education institutions. They cite varied reasons for the failures. Of note, African higher education institutions ...

The Enigma of Quality in Greek Higher Education. A mixed methods study of introducing quality management into Greek higher education.

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Papadimitriou, A.; Papadimitriou, Antigoni

2011-01-01

This study investigated the adoption of quality management in Greek universities as an outcome of organizational processes. It examined a period in the first decade of the 21st century when program evaluation and quality management were heavily debated in Greece. The study recognizes that higher

Quality Assurance for Higher Education Franchising.

Science.gov (United States)

Yorke, Mantz

1993-01-01

The practice of "franchising" higher education programs, or provision of educational programs through vendors, is examined as it occurs in the United Kingdom as a result of recent educational policy changes. A set of principles for assuring the quality of such programs is proposed. (MSE)

Funding source and the quality of reports of chronic wounds trials: 2004 to 2011.

Science.gov (United States)

Hodgson, Robert; Allen, Richard; Broderick, Ellen; Bland, J Martin; Dumville, Jo C; Ashby, Rebecca; Bell-Syer, Sally; Foxlee, Ruth; Hall, Jill; Lamb, Karen; Madden, Mary; O'Meara, Susan; Stubbs, Nikki; Cullum, Nicky

2014-01-14

Critical commentaries suggest that wound care randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are often poorly reported with many methodological flaws. Furthermore, interventions in chronic wounds, rather than being drugs, are often medical devices for which there are no requirements for RCTs to bring products to market. RCTs in wounds trials therefore potentially represent a form of marketing. This study presents a methodological overview of chronic wound trials published between 2004 and 2011 and investigates the influence of industry funding on methodological quality. A systematic search for RCTs for the treatment of chronic wounds published in the English language between 2004 and 2011 (inclusive) in the Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register of Trials was carried out.Data were extracted on aspects of trial design, conduct and quality including sample size, duration of follow-up, specification of a primary outcome, use of surrogate outcomes, and risks of bias. In addition, the prevalence of industry funding was assessed and its influence on the above aspects of trial design, conduct and quality was assessed. A total of 167 RCTs met our inclusion criteria. We found chronic wound trials often have short durations of follow-up (median 12 weeks), small sample sizes (median 63), fail to define a primary outcome in 41% of cases, and those that do define a primary outcome, use surrogate measures of healing in 40% of cases. Only 40% of trials used appropriate methods of randomisation, 25% concealed allocation and 34% blinded outcome assessors. Of the included trials, 41% were wholly or partially funded by industry, 33% declared non-commercial funding and 26% did not report a funding source. Industry funding was not statistically significantly associated with any measure of methodological quality, though this analysis was probably underpowered. This overview confirms concerns raised about the methodological quality of RCTs in wound care and illustrates that greater efforts must

Student Perceptions on Service Quality of Higher Education: an Empirical Study

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Rahayu, Fatik; Murtanto, Murtanto; Ekasari, Ayu

2007-01-01

Educational literatures suggest that there is mounting pressure from customers of higher education to close the gap between their expectation of institutional performance and the actual performance (Widrick et al., 2002; Pariseau and Mc Daniel, 1997; Shank et al., 1995). Therefore, it is imperative that higher educations actively monitor the quality of their service. This study deals with measuring the service quality in higher education. The service quality of higher education in this resear...

Benchmarking as an Instrument for Improvement of Quality Management in Higher Education

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Narimantas Kazimieras Paliulis

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Conditioned by globalisation and constant change, higher education institutions (HEIs are forced to pursue new instruments for quality assurance in higher education. States seem to pursue this aim by attempting to create an efficiently operating system of higher education that satisfies needs of diverse societal groups. Quality dimension is the most important element of efficient and effective higher education. From the perspective of a state, assessment and monitoring of quality are instruments for the management of processes of higher education. The article substantiates these statements using the evolution of the dimension of quality in the European and Lithuanian higher education in the course of the Bologna Process. The article also presents a benchmarking method and discusses its development and application tendencies in business organisations. Also, it looks at possibilities to apply this method in higher education. The main aim of this article is to explore benchmarking as an effective instrument for the improvement of performance quality in HEIs and complement the already implemented quality management systems. Another aim is to suggest this method to national agencies for quality assurance in higher education for monitoring and analysis of qualitative changes on the systematic level. The object of the article is the improvement of performance quality in HEIs. Benchmarking is proposed for the use in higher education on the institutional level as an instrument that complements presently introduced quality management systems in Lithuanian HEIs. This way, it will contribute to the formation of the culture of quality in higher education.

QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES: A LITERATURE REVIEW

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Goutam Kumar Kundu

2017-03-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of existing research and present a holistic understanding of quality in higher education. This literature review builds on major sources of relevant research relating to educational quality methodologies, quality literacy and multi-dimensional concept of quality. The paper attempts to understand quality in education as a relationship amongst all the participants and resources of an educational institution. Based on the results of the literature review, the paper attempts to establish the foundation for a comprehensive understanding and analysis of quality focussing on higher education. This literature review provides a frame of reference that serves as a basis for future research regarding role of quality in education.

Emblems of Quality in Higher Education. Developing and Sustaining High-Quality Programs.

Science.gov (United States)

Haworth, Jennifer Grant; Conrad, Clifton F.

This book proposes an "engagement" theory of program quality to evaluate and improve higher education programs at all degree levels. Based on interviews with 781 participants in a national study of Masters degree programs, it focuses on the interactive roles of students, faculty, and administrators in developing high-quality programs…

The ethics of public policy RCTs: The principle of policy equipoise.

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MacKay, Douglas

2018-01-01

In this article, I ask whether a principle analogous to the principle of clinical equipoise should govern the design and conduct of RCTs evaluating the effectiveness of policy interventions. I answer this question affirmatively, and introduce and defend the principle of policy equipoise. According to this principle, all arms of a policy RCT must be, at minimum, in a state of equipoise with the best proven policy that is also morally and practically attainable and sustainable. For all arms of a policy RCT, policy experts must either (1) reasonably disagree about whether the trial arms are more effective than this policy, or (2) know that they are. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The quality movement in higher education in the United States.

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Buchanan, H S

1995-09-01

Continuous quality improvement (CQI), often implemented as part of an integrated management system called total quality management (TQM), has been institutionalized within many manufacturing, military and service organizations in the USA as a response to declining market share, low productivity and customer complaints about poor quality. Signs and symptoms suggest that higher education has similar problems which are systematic and relate to the quality ot higher education, financing, facilities, curriculum and graduates. In the 1990S, the quality movement has begun to spread to the field of education as a means of diagnosing and treating the problems widely recognized as residing in US educational institutions, especially in colleges and universities. Many business leaders and authors believe that 'quality is the most important strategic issue facing top management in the 1990s'. This belief arises partly due to the fact that managers are beginning to understand the relationship between healthy, high quality organizations and healthy profits. This article traces the recent US quality movement from its roots in manufacturing and the military, its adoption by service institutions, and its more recent application by higher education institutions.

Gender-heterogeneous working groups produce higher quality science.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lesley G Campbell

Full Text Available Here we present the first empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that a gender-heterogeneous problem-solving team generally produced journal articles perceived to be higher quality by peers than a team comprised of highly-performing individuals of the same gender. Although women were historically underrepresented as principal investigators of working groups, their frequency as PIs at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis is now comparable to the national frequencies in biology and they are now equally qualified, in terms of their impact on the accumulation of ecological knowledge (as measured by the h-index. While women continue to be underrepresented as working group participants, peer-reviewed publications with gender-heterogeneous authorship teams received 34% more citations than publications produced by gender-uniform authorship teams. This suggests that peers citing these publications perceive publications that also happen to have gender-heterogeneous authorship teams as higher quality than publications with gender uniform authorship teams. Promoting diversity not only promotes representation and fairness but may lead to higher quality science.

Gender-heterogeneous working groups produce higher quality science.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Lesley G; Mehtani, Siya; Dozier, Mary E; Rinehart, Janice

2013-01-01

Here we present the first empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that a gender-heterogeneous problem-solving team generally produced journal articles perceived to be higher quality by peers than a team comprised of highly-performing individuals of the same gender. Although women were historically underrepresented as principal investigators of working groups, their frequency as PIs at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis is now comparable to the national frequencies in biology and they are now equally qualified, in terms of their impact on the accumulation of ecological knowledge (as measured by the h-index). While women continue to be underrepresented as working group participants, peer-reviewed publications with gender-heterogeneous authorship teams received 34% more citations than publications produced by gender-uniform authorship teams. This suggests that peers citing these publications perceive publications that also happen to have gender-heterogeneous authorship teams as higher quality than publications with gender uniform authorship teams. Promoting diversity not only promotes representation and fairness but may lead to higher quality science.

QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEMS IN POLISH AND UKRAINIAN HIGHER EDUCATION. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

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Marta Tutko

2015-02-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the progress made to develop external and internal quality assurance systems in Polish and Ukrainian higher education in the European Higher Education Area background. The focus of the paper is on the extent to which quality assurance systems in these countries are following the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area. Furthermore, internal and external quality assur-ance in the European context is presented in the article. The authors of the article also conducted a comparative analysis of quality assurance systems in Polish and Ukrainian higher education.

Survey Email Scheduling and Monitoring in eRCTs (SESAMe): A Digital Tool to Improve Data Collection in Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials.

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Skonnord, Trygve; Steen, Finn; Skjeie, Holgeir; Fetveit, Arne; Brekke, Mette; Klovning, Atle

2016-11-22

Electronic questionnaires can ease data collection in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in clinical practice. We found no existing software that could automate the sending of emails to participants enrolled into an RCT at different study participant inclusion time points. Our aim was to develop suitable software to facilitate data collection in an ongoing multicenter RCT of low back pain (the Acuback study). For the Acuback study, we determined that we would need to send a total of 5130 emails to 270 patients recruited at different centers and at 19 different time points. The first version of the software was tested in a pilot study in November 2013 but was unable to deliver multiuser or Web-based access. We resolved these shortcomings in the next version, which we tested on the Web in February 2014. Our new version was able to schedule and send the required emails in the full-scale Acuback trial that started in March 2014. The system architecture evolved through an iterative, inductive process between the project study leader and the software programmer. The program was tested and updated when errors occurred. To evaluate the development of the software, we used a logbook, a research assistant dialogue, and Acuback trial participant queries. We have developed a Web-based app, Survey Email Scheduling and Monitoring in eRCTs (SESAMe), that monitors responses in electronic surveys and sends reminders by emails or text messages (short message service, SMS) to participants. The overall response rate for the 19 surveys in the Acuback study increased from 76.4% (655/857) before we introduced reminders to 93.11% (1149/1234) after the new function (P<.001). Further development will aim at securing encryption and data storage. The SESAMe software facilitates consecutive patient data collection in RCTs and can be used to increase response rates and quality of research, both in general practice and in other clinical trial settings. ©Trygve Skonnord, Finn Steen, Holgeir

Making Sense of an Elusive Concept: Academics’ Perspectives of Quality in Higher Education

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Lazarus Nabaho

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Objective: Since the 1990s studies on how stakeholders in higher education perceive quality have burgeoned. Nevertheless, the majority of studies on perception of quality in higher education focus on students and employers. The few studies on academics’ perceptions of quality in higher education treat academics as a homogeneous group and, therefore, do not point out cross-disciplinary perspectives in perceptions of quality. This article explores how academics across six disciplines perceive quality in higher education. Method: The article is anchored in the interpretivist paradigm. Data was collected from 14 purposely selected academics at Makerere University in Uganda and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The findings show that academics perceive quality in higher education as transformation, fitness for purpose, and exceptional. The findings further demonstrate that a stakeholder group or an individual stakeholder can subscribe to a notion of quality in higher education but voice divergent views on its variants. Similarly, the academic discipline, the perceived purpose of higher education, and the problems within a higher education system have an influence on stakeholders’ conception of quality in higher education. Conclusions: From the findings it can be inferred that quality in higher education defies a single definition and that stakeholders’ perceptions of quality do not take place in a vacuum. Implication for Theory and/or Practice: The multidimensional nature of quality and the contestations around it necessitate a multidimensional approach to assuring and assessing it.

Trading Quality across Borders: Colonial Discourse and International Quality Assurance Policies in Higher Education

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Blanco Ramírez, Gerardo

2014-01-01

Accountability and quality assurance have become central discourses in higher education policy throughout the world. However, accountability and quality assurance involve power and control. Practices and ideas about quality developed in the Global North are spreading rapidly across the Global South, leading to increased uniformity in the…

Factors Influencing Assessment Quality in Higher Vocational Education

Science.gov (United States)

Baartman, Liesbeth; Gulikers, Judith; Dijkstra, Asha

2013-01-01

The development of assessments that are fit to assess professional competence in higher vocational education requires a reconsideration of assessment methods, quality criteria and (self)evaluation. This article examines the self-evaluations of nine courses of a large higher vocational education institute. Per course, 4-11 teachers and 3-10…

Opportunity or Exploitation? Women and Quality Assurance in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Morley, Louise

2005-01-01

Based on interviews with 18 UK women academics and managers on quality and power in higher education, this article interrogates the impact of quality assurance discourses and practices on women in higher education. Micro-level analysis of the effects of audit and the evaluative state seem to suggest that hegemonic masculinities and gendered power…

Lower- Versus Higher-Income Populations In The Alternative Quality Contract: Improved Quality And Similar Spending.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Zirui; Rose, Sherri; Chernew, Michael E; Safran, Dana Gelb

2017-01-01

As population-based payment models become increasingly common, it is crucial to understand how such payment models affect health disparities. We evaluated health care quality and spending among enrollees in areas with lower versus higher socioeconomic status in Massachusetts before and after providers entered into the Alternative Quality Contract, a two-sided population-based payment model with substantial incentives tied to quality. We compared changes in process measures, outcome measures, and spending between enrollees in areas with lower and higher socioeconomic status from 2006 to 2012 (outcome measures were measured after the intervention only). Quality improved for all enrollees in the Alternative Quality Contract after their provider organizations entered the contract. Process measures improved 1.2 percentage points per year more among enrollees in areas with lower socioeconomic status than among those in areas with higher socioeconomic status. Outcome measure improvement was no different between the subgroups; neither were changes in spending. Larger or comparable improvements in quality among enrollees in areas with lower socioeconomic status suggest a potential narrowing of disparities. Strong pay-for-performance incentives within a population-based payment model could encourage providers to focus on improving quality for more disadvantaged populations. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

Patient Characteristics Associated With a Successful Response to Nurse-Led Care Programs Targeting the Oldest-Old: A Comparison of Two RCTs.

Science.gov (United States)

Bleijenberg, Nienke; Imhof, Lorenz; Mahrer-Imhof, Romy; Wallhagen, Margaret I; de Wit, Niek J; Schuurmans, Marieke J

2017-06-01

% CI 0.66-1.03], and OR = 1.5 [95% CI 0.92-2.45]), respectively. Two large RCTs demonstrated that a preventive nurse-led care program can preserve daily functioning in the oldest-old population. Older people with few comorbidities and higher self-rated health had a higher likelihood of a positive outcome. Unraveling the characteristics associated with a successful response provides important information for further refining and targeting an intervention to obtain maximum effectiveness. More effort is needed to modify interventions for the oldest-old with multiple morbidities and low levels of education. © 2017 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Analysis of the Quality of Clinical Trials Published in Spanish-Language Dermatology Journals Between 1997 and 2012.

Science.gov (United States)

Sanclemente, G; Pardo, H; Sánchez, S; Bonfill, X

2016-01-01

The value of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) undertaken to identify an association between an intervention and an outcome is determined by their quality and scientific rigor. To assess the methodological quality of RCTs published in Spanish-language dermatology journals. By way of a systematic manual search, we identified all the RCTs in journals published in Spain and Latin America between 1997 (the year in which the CONSORT statement was published) and 2012. Risk of bias was evaluated for each RCT by assessing the following domains: randomization sequence generation, allocation concealment, blinding of patients and those assessing outcomes, missing data, and patient follow-up. Source of funding and conflict of interest statements, if any, were recorded for each study. The search identified 70 RCTs published in 21 journals. Most of the RCTs had a high risk of bias, primarily because of gaps in the reporting of important methodological aspects. The source of funding was reported in only 15 studies. In spite of the considerable number of Spanish and Latin American journals, few RCTs have been published in the 15 years analyzed. Most of the RCTs published had serious defects in that the authors omitted methodological information essential to any evaluation of the quality of the trial and failed to report sources of funding or possible conflicts of interest for the authors involved. Authors of experimental clinical research in dermatology published in Spain and Latin America need to substantially improve both the design of their trials and the reporting of results. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and AEDV. All rights reserved.

Assessment of quality indicators in spanish higher military education

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Olmos Gómez Maria del Carmen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The quality assessment is subject to multiple interpretations of its content and purpose, and also regarding to methods and techniques used to develop it. Although purposes of assessment are varied, usually pursuit three goals: Improvement, accountability and information. Currently, the concept of quality evaluation has been replaced by the management of educational quality, as Matthew [6] point “the new culture of evaluation is no longer oriented to penalty, ranking or selection of people, as provide a reasoned and reasonable information to guide the management of educational improvement”. Military Training Centres are externally evaluated by an experts External Evaluation Unit to identify strengths and weaknesses on their self-evaluation system and focus on important aspects related to the organization of the Centre, development of work plans, teacher’s style and students learning strategies, system of evaluation and qualification and accurate recommendations to improve all that. This research focuses on the evaluation of quality indicators for the external evaluation of higher education at Military Education Centres in Spain and it is funded by a joint project between University of Granada and MADOC. The technique used for collecting and analysing information was a content description of several documents provided by these military educational authorities, arising the identification and extraction of relevant indicators on the evaluation of higher education. This analysis was primarily based on standards and indicators systems by ANECA (National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation adapted to the Military Higher Education, but also it was consider other standards by international agencies and evaluative institutions, such as University of Chile, University of Paraguay, Canarias Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation and Agency for Quality Education System University of Castilla y León. The analysis realize a usual

Assessment of quality indicators in Spanish higher military education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olmos Gómez Maria del Carmen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The quality assessment is subject to multiple interpretations of its content and purpose, and also regarding to methods and techniques used to develop it. Although purposes of assessment are varied, usually pursuit three goals: Improvement, accountability and information. Currently, the concept of quality evaluation has been replaced by the management of educational quality, as Matthew [6] point “the new culture of evaluation is no longer oriented to penalty, ranking or selection of people, as provide a reasoned and reasonable information to guide the management of educational improvement”. Military Training Centres are externally evaluated by an experts External Evaluation Unit to identify strengths and weaknesses on their self-evaluation system and focus on important aspects related to the organization of the Centre, development of work plans, teacher’s style and students learning strategies, system of evaluation and qualification and accurate recommendations to improve all that. This research focuses on the evaluation of quality indicators for the external evaluation of higher education at Military Education Centres in Spain and it is funded by a joint project between University of Granada and MADOC. The technique used for collecting and analysing information was a content description of several documents provided by these military educational authorities, arising the identification and extraction of relevant indicators on the evaluation of higher education. This analysis was primarily based on standards and indicators systems by ANECA (National Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation adapted to the Military Higher Education, but also it was consider other standards by international agencies and evaluative institutions, such as University of Chile, University of Paraguay, Canarias Agency for Quality Assessment and Accreditation and Agency for Quality Education System University of Castilla y León. The analysis realize a usual

Systematic literature review of clinical trials evaluating pharmacotherapy for overactive bladder in elderly patients: An assessment of trial quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Kistler, Kristin D; Xu, Yingxin; Zou, Kelly H; Ntanios, Fady; Chapman, Douglass S; Luo, Xuemei

2018-01-01

Overactive bladder (OAB) disproportionately affects older-aged adults, yet most randomized controlled trials (RCTs) underrepresent patients ≥65. This systematic literature review (SLR) identified RCTs evaluating β-3 adrenergic agonists or muscarinic antagonists in elderly patients with OAB, and compared study quality across trials. MEDLINE ® , Embase ® , and Cochrane Collaboration Central Register of Clinical Trials databases were searched from inception through April 28, 2015 to identify published, peer-reviewed RCT reports evaluating β-3 adrenergic agonists or muscarinic antagonists in elderly OAB patients (either ≥65 years or study-described as "elderly"). To assess study quality of RCT reports, we focused on internal/external validity, assessed via two scales: the validated Effective Public Health Practice Project [EPHPP]): Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies, and a tool commissioned by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Database searches yielded 1380 records that were then screened according to predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria. We included eight papers meeting study criteria. Despite scientific community efforts to improve RCT reporting standards, published reports still include incomplete and inconsistent reporting-of subject attrition, baseline patient characteristics, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and other important details. Only three of the eight OAB RCTs in this review received quality ratings of Strong (EPHPP) or Fair (AHRQ) and were multicenter with large samples. Despite the prevalence of OAB among older age individuals, relatively few RCTs evaluate OAB treatments explicitly among elderly subjects. The findings from this quality assessment suggest some areas for improvement in both conduct and reporting of future RCTs assessing OAB treatment in elderly. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Unravelling Quality Culture in Higher Education: A Realist Review

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Bendermacher, G. W. G.; oude Egbrink, M. G. A.; Wolfhagen, I. H. A. P.; Dolmans, D. H. J. M.

2017-01-01

There is a growing belief that higher education institutions should nurture a "quality culture" in which structural/managerial and cultural/psychological elements act in synergy to continuously improve education. Notwithstanding the positive connotation of the "quality culture" concept, its exact configuration remains subject…

A systematic mapping review of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs in care homes

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Gordon Adam L

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background A thorough understanding of the literature generated from research in care homes is required to support evidence-based commissioning and delivery of healthcare. So far this research has not been compiled or described. We set out to describe the extent of the evidence base derived from randomized controlled trials conducted in care homes. Methods A systematic mapping review was conducted of the randomized controlled trials (RCTs conducted in care homes. Medline was searched for “Nursing Home”, “Residential Facilities” and “Homes for the Aged”; CINAHL for “nursing homes”, “residential facilities” and “skilled nursing facilities”; AMED for “Nursing homes”, “Long term care”, “Residential facilities” and “Randomized controlled trial”; and BNI for “Nursing Homes”, “Residential Care” and “Long-term care”. Articles were classified against a keywording strategy describing: year and country of publication; randomization, stratification and blinding methodology; target of intervention; intervention and control treatments; number of subjects and/or clusters; outcome measures; and results. Results 3226 abstracts were identified and 291 articles reviewed in full. Most were recent (median age 6 years and from the United States. A wide range of targets and interventions were identified. Studies were mostly functional (44 behaviour, 20 prescribing and 20 malnutrition studies rather than disease-based. Over a quarter focussed on mental health. Conclusions This study is the first to collate data from all RCTs conducted in care homes and represents an important resource for those providing and commissioning healthcare for this sector. The evidence-base is rapidly developing. Several areas - influenza, falls, mobility, fractures, osteoporosis – are appropriate for systematic review. For other topics, researchers need to focus on outcome measures that can be compared and collated.

Programme evaluation: Maintaining quality in higher education ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The evaluation of educational or social programmes is paramount for establishing success or impact in higher education. Evaluation questions about programme goals (e.g. better performance of first-year students) or about the quality of programme strategies (design and implementation) and effectiveness of delivery ...

Internal Resources to Improve the Quality of Higher Education

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Tatyana V. Zak

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the situation in the Russian higher education system. The factors affecting the improvement of the quality of higher education are analyzed. The emphasis is on mass universities. The main obstacles to improving the quality of education in these institutions are the Institute of collective reputation and the high costs of the struggle for improving the quality of education.The necessity of focusing on the actuation of the internal resources to improve the quality associated with the change in the educational process: giving students the right to choose the timing exams and training period at university. The implementation of the proposed measures will reduce the opportunity costs associated with quality improvement activities. The proposed change in the organization of the learning process opens the possibility to estimate the activity of universities in terms of medium-term implementation of educational programs. The use of this indicator will not only combine the two different targets of universities, but also to minimize the costs of opportunistic behavior of teachers and management.

Is higher nursing home quality more costly?

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Giorgio, L Di; Filippini, M; Masiero, G

2016-11-01

Widespread issues regarding quality in nursing homes call for an improved understanding of the relationship with costs. This relationship may differ in European countries, where care is mainly delivered by nonprofit providers. In accordance with the economic theory of production, we estimate a total cost function for nursing home services using data from 45 nursing homes in Switzerland between 2006 and 2010. Quality is measured by means of clinical indicators regarding process and outcome derived from the minimum data set. We consider both composite and single quality indicators. Contrary to most previous studies, we use panel data and control for omitted variables bias. This allows us to capture features specific to nursing homes that may explain differences in structural quality or cost levels. Additional analysis is provided to address simultaneity bias using an instrumental variable approach. We find evidence that poor levels of quality regarding outcome, as measured by the prevalence of severe pain and weight loss, lead to higher costs. This may have important implications for the design of payment schemes for nursing homes.

Programme Evaluation: Maintaining Quality in Higher Education

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Loots, A.

2008-01-01

The evaluation of educational or social programmes is paramount for establishing success or impact in higher education. Evaluation questions about programme goals (e.g. better performance of first-year students) or about the quality of programme strategies (design and implementation) and effectiveness of delivery (coordinator inputs and…

The Quality Movements in Higher Education in the United States.

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Miller, Richard I.

1996-01-01

Discussion of various quality control strategies in American higher education looks at and compares Total Quality Management (TQM), outcomes assessment, Deming's 14 points, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the ISO 9000 series, restructuring, reengineering, and performance indicators. It is suggested that colleges and universities will…

Quality Assurance in Transnational Higher Education. ENQA Workshop Report 11

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Bennett, Paul; Bergan, Sjur; Cassar, Daniela; Hamilton, Marlene; Soinila, Michele; Sursock, Andree; Uvalic-Trumbic, Stamenka; Williams, Peter

2010-01-01

The present report is the product of an ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) Bologna Seminar "Quality Assurance in Transnational Education: from words to action" hosted by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA, UK) in London in December, 2008. The seminar discussed the current trends in Transnational…

Service Quality in Higher Education Using an Enhanced SERVQUAL Approach

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Tan, Kay C.; Kek, Sei W.

2004-01-01

Customer service and quality are driving forces in the business community. As higher educational institutions tussle for competitive advantage and high service quality, the evaluation of educational service quality is essential to provide motivation for and to give feedback on the effectiveness of educational plans and implementation. This…

Worldviews and Quality in Higher Education: a dichotomy between productivity and social responsibility

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Julio Bertolin

2013-11-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses and analyzes concepts that have been often used by important stakeholders to refer to challenges and to quality in higher education. The aim is to identify the conceptualizations of quality in higher education that underlie the use of different concepts such as efficiency and equity. Based on publications by important multilateral organizations, these terms are correlated with the conceptualizations of higher education and, at the political level, with two major contemporary socioeconomic models: neoliberalism and social welfare state. Finally, two ideological tendencies for the understanding of quality in higher education are presented: quality as productivity and quality as social responsibility.

Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Zimbabwe

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Garwe, Evelyn Chiyevo

2014-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to furnish local and global stakeholders with detailed information regarding the development and current status of quality assurance in the Zimbabwean higher education sector. The study used document analysis, observation and interviews with key informants as sources of data. This paper addresses the dearth of…

Quality Instruction as a Motivating Factor in Higher Education

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Sogunro, Olusegun A.

2017-01-01

The importance of quality instruction in motivating students in higher education cannot be overemphasized. Without quality instruction, students' motivation to learn recedes. Five focus groups of graduate students aided the data collection for this study. More than one-third of the 119 participating graduate students involved in this study claimed…

"Folk" Understandings of Quality in UK Higher Hospitality Education

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Wood, Roy

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the evolution of "folk" understandings of quality in higher hospitality education and the consequent implications of these understandings for current quality concerns in the field. Design/methodology/approach: The paper combines a historical survey of the stated topic…

Quality Management in Higher Education: Towards a Better Understanding of an Emerging Field

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Pratasavitskaya, Halina; Stensaker, Bjorn

2010-01-01

The article analyses how quality management is understood in higher education research. By reviewing a number of academic contributions addressing quality management issues in "Quality in Higher Education" from 1995-2008, the article identifies central concepts associated with quality management, discusses whether there are commonalities to be…

The Massification of Higher Education in the UK: Aspects of Service Quality

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Giannakis, Mihalis; Bullivant, Nicola

2016-01-01

This article explores several aspects of service quality for the provision of higher education. Alongside the trend of the massification of higher education over the past two decades, higher education institutions are required to review quality across a range of outputs, besides teaching and learning. The study was undertaken within the…

Reforms, Leadership and Quality Management in Greek Higher Education

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Papadimitriou, Antigoni

2011-01-01

This article reports on research to form an understanding of how to account whether and how quality management (QM) has been adopted in Greek higher education. Greece only recently introduced quality assurance policies. In this study, I will describe governmental reforms related to QM policies until 2010. An issue that is frequently addressed…

[Audit and feedback, and continuous quality improvement strategies to improve the quality of care for type 2 diabetes: a systematic review of literature].

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Vecchi, Simona; Agabiti, Nera; Mitrova, Susanna; Cacciani, Laura; Amato, Laura; Davoli, Marina; Bargagli, Anna Maria

2016-01-01

we analysed evidence on effective interventions to improve the quality of care and management in patients with diabetes type 2. This review focuses particularly on audit and feedback intervention, targeted to healthcare providers, and continuous quality improvement (CQI) involving health professionals and health care systems, respectively. we searched The Cochrane Library, PubMed, and EMBASE (search period: January 2005-December 2015) to identify systematic reviews (SR) and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) considering patients' outcomes and process measures as quality indicators in diabetes care. Selection of studies and data extraction were carried out independently by two reviewers. Methodological quality of individual studies was assessed using the checklist «Assessment of methodological quality of systematic review» (AMSTAR) and the Cochrane's tool, respectively. We produced summaries of results for each study design. the search process resulted in 810 citations. One SR and 7 RCTs that compared any intervention in which audit and feedback and CQI was a component vs. other interventions were selected. The SR found that audit and feedback activity was associated with improvements of glycaemic (mean difference: 0.26; 95%CI 0.08;0.44) and cholesterol control (mean difference: 0.03; 95%CI -0.04;0.10). CQI interventions were not associated with an improvement of quality of diabetes care. The RCTs considered in this review compared a broad range of interventions including feedback as unique activity or as part of more complex strategies. The methodological quality was generally poor in all the included trials. the available evidence suggests that audit and feedback and CQI improve quality of care in diabetic patients, although the effect is small and heterogeneous among process and outcomes indicators.

Guiding and Modelling Quality Improvement in Higher Education Institutions

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Little, Daniel

2015-01-01

The article considers the process of creating quality improvement in higher education institutions from the point of view of current organisational theory and social-science modelling techniques. The author considers the higher education institution as a functioning complex of rules, norms and other organisational features and reviews the social…

Meeting the Challenge: Quality Systems in Private Higher Education in Kuwait

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Al-Atiqi, Imad M.; Alharbi, Lafi M.

2009-01-01

In Kuwait, as in other rapidly-developing higher education systems, one major area of concern is ensuring the quality of education offered by private providers. This paper briefly reviews the history of the development of higher education in Kuwait since its inception in 1936. It considers various quality systems currently in place in other…

Revisiting the Quality of Reporting Randomized Controlled Trials in Nursing Literature.

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Adams, Yenupini Joyce; Kamp, Kendra; Liu, Cheng Ching; Stommel, Manfred; Thana, Kanjana; Broome, Marion E; Smith, Barbara

2018-03-01

To examine and update the literature on the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as reported in top nursing journals, based on manuscripts' adherence to the CONsolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines. Descriptive review of adherence of RCT manuscript to CONSORT guidelines. Top 40 International Scientific Indexing (ISI) ranked nursing journals that published 20 or more RCTs between 2010 and 2014, were included in the study. Selected articles were randomly assigned to four reviewers who assessed the quality of the articles using the CONSORT checklist. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A total of 119 articles were included in the review. The mean CONSORT score significantly differed by journal but did not differ based on year of publication. The least consistently reported items included random allocation, who randomly assigned participants and whether those administering the interventions were blinded to group assignment. Although progress has been made, there is still room for improvement in the quality of RCT reporting in nursing journals. Special attention must be paid to how adequately studies adhere to the CONSORT prior to publication in nursing journals. Evidence from (RCTs) are thought to provide the best evidence for evaluating the impact of treatments and interventions by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Since the evidence may be used for the development of clinical practice guidelines, it is critical that RCTs be designed, conducted, and reported appropriately and precisely. © 2017 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Financial Intelligence and the Quality of Higher Education in Africa ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Financial Intelligence and the Quality of Higher Education in Africa. ... Improving the quality of curriculum development in private Universities in Africa from time to time is a task that is very essential to achieving ... AJOL African Journals Online.

Implementation and translation: from European standards and guidelines for quality assurance to education quality work in higher education institutions

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Westerheijden, Donald F.; Kohoutek, Jan; Eggins, Heather

2014-01-01

The Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG for short) have been part of the regulative infrastructure of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) since 2005 (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, 2009).

Quality assessment in higher education using the SERVQUALQ model

OpenAIRE

Đonlagić, Sabina; Fazlić, Samira

2015-01-01

Economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina is striving towards growth and increased employment and it has been proven by empirical studies worldwide that higher education contributes to socio-economic development of a country. Universities are important for generation, preservation and dissemination of knowledge in order to contribute to socio-economic benefits of a country. Higher education institutions are being pressured to improve value for their activities and providing quality higher education s...

Quality of Reporting of Randomized Clinical Trials in Tai Chi Interventions—A Systematic Review

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Jing-Yi Li

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives. To evaluate the reporting quality of published randomized clinical trials (RCTs in the Tai Chi literature following the publication of the CONSORT guidelines in 2001. Data Sources. The OVID MEDLINE and PUBMED databases. Review Methods. To survey the general characteristics of Tai Chi RCTs in the literature, we included any report if (i it was an original report of the trial; (ii its design was RCT; (iii one of the treatments being tested was Tai Chi; and (iv it was in English. In addition, we assessed the reporting quality of RCTs that were published between 2002 and 2007, using a modified CONSORT checklist of 40 items. The adequate description of Tai Chi interventions in these trials was examined against a 10-item checklist adapted from previous reviews. Results. The search yielded 31 Tai Chi RCTs published from 2002 to 2007 and only 11 for 1992–2001. Among trials published during 2002–2007, the most adequately reported criteria were related to background, participant eligibility and interpretation of the study results. Nonetheless, the most poorly reported items were associated with randomization allocation concealment, implementation of randomization and the definitions of period of recruitment and follow-up. In addition, only 23% of RCTs provided adequate details of Tai Chi intervention used in the trials. Conclusion. The findings in this review indicated that the reporting quality of Tai Chi intervention trials is sub-optimal. Substantial improvement is required to meet the CONSORT guidelines and allow assessment of the quality of evidence. We believe that not only investigators, but also journal editors, reviewers and funding agencies need to follow the CONSORT guidelines to improve the standards of research and strengthen the evidence base for Tai Chi and for complementary and alternative medicine.

Reflection on Quality Assurance System of Higher Vocational Education under Big Data Era

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Jiang Xinlan

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Big data has the features like Volume, Variety, Value and Velocity. Here come the new opportunities and challenges for construction of Chinese quality assurance system of higher vocational education under big data era. There are problems in current quality assurance system of higher vocational education, such as imperfect main body, non-formation of internally and externally incorporated quality assurance system, non-scientific security standard and insufficiency in security investment. The construction of higher vocational education under big data era requires a change in the idea of quality assurance system construction to realize the multiple main bodies and multiple layers development trend for educational quality assurance system, and strengthen the construction of information platform for quality assurance system.

Aromatherapy for the Treatment of Patients with Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia: A Descriptive Analysis of RCTs.

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Press-Sandler, Olga; Freud, Tamar; Volkov, Ilya; Peleg, Roni; Press, Yan

2016-06-01

Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are a common problem among patients with dementia. This problem is usually treated by drugs, but they have limited efficacy and often cause adverse effects. Aromatherapy is a nonpharmacologic treatment that is simple to use and devoid of significant adverse effects. To review the literature on the effectiveness of aromatherapy treatment in patients with BPSD. A descriptive analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) published in the English-language literature and cited in PubMed. Eleven articles on RCTs were found, of which 1 had fewer than 10 participants, 2 were mistakenly presented as RCTs, and another did not report treatment for BPSD. In all, 7 articles with 417 participants total (range, 15-114) were reviewed. The mean age in all studies was greater than 69 years (range, 69-85 years), and the percentage of women was 55% (range, 50%-57%). The intervention period ranged from 10 days to 12 weeks. Two studies used Melissa oil and 5 others used lavender oil. The studies described different methods of administration for the oils, including spraying and rubbing over various body organs. The duration of treatment differed among the studies. In 3 studies the investigators concluded that the treatment was not effective and in 3 that it was effective; in 1 study no clear conclusion could be drawn. The difference between positive and negative studies was not explained by differences in the study population, the type of oil, or the duration of treatment. The significant difference apparently stems from the method of administration. When the oil was applied close to the olfactory system the outcome was positive. A study should be designed to assess the effect of the site of application of aromatherapy.

US Accreditation in Mexico: Quality in Higher Education as Symbol, Performance and Translation

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Blanco-Ramirez, Gerardo

2015-01-01

Quality practices in higher education involve more than mere compliance with standards and technical mandates; given the complexity of the decisions involved in quality in higher education, this concept, quality, can be analyzed as symbol and performance. This paper utilizes translation as heuristic to analyze the implementation of US…

Students' Perceptions of Higher Education Quality at Notre Dame University-Louaize in Lebanon

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Saad, Nada

2013-01-01

Understanding how students perceive quality of education and identifying the most important quality factors from their perspectives represent a first stage for quality improvement and customer satisfaction in higher education. The purpose of this project was to investigate how higher education students in Lebanon perceived the concept of quality…

Impact Evaluation of Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Methodology and Causal Designs

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Leiber, Theodor; Stensaker, Bjørn; Harvey, Lee

2015-01-01

In this paper, the theoretical perspectives and general methodological elements of impact evaluation of quality assurance in higher education institutions are discussed, which should be a cornerstone of quality development in higher education and contribute to improving the knowledge about the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of quality…

The Academic Quality Handbook: Enhancing Higher Education in Universities and Further Education Colleges.

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McGhee, Patrick

This book is intended as an introduction to the management of quality assurance and enhancement in higher education, particularly in England. The text focuses on the relationship between institutional quality assurance and the auditing authority of the British Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. The chapters of part 1, "The Quality…

Comparing Alternative Instruments to Measure Service Quality in Higher Education

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Brochado, Ana

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the performance of five alternative measures of service quality in the high education sector--service quality (SERVQUAL), importance-weighted SERVQUAL, service performance (SERVPERF), importance-weighted SERVPERF, and higher education performance (HEdPERF). Design/methodology/approach: Data were…

Making Sense of an Elusive Concept: Academics' Perspectives of Quality in Higher Education

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Nabaho, Lazarus; Aguti, Jessica Norah; Oonyu, Joseph

2017-01-01

Objective: Since the 1990s studies on how stakeholders in higher education perceive quality have burgeoned. Nevertheless, the majority of studies on perception of quality in higher education focus on students and employers. The few studies on academics' perceptions of quality in higher education treat academics as a homogeneous group and,…

Addressing the Wicked Problem of Quality in Higher Education: Theoretical Approaches and Implications

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Krause, Kerri-Lee

2012-01-01

This article explores the wicked problem of quality in higher education, arguing for a more robust theorising of the subject at national, institutional and local department level. The focus of the discussion rests on principles for theorising in more rigorous ways about the multidimensional issue of quality. Quality in higher education is proposed…

Does Accelerating Access to Higher Education Lower Its Quality? The Australian Experience

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Pitman, Tim; Koshy, Paul; Phillimore, John

2015-01-01

In the pursuit of mass higher education, fears are often expressed that the quality of higher education suffers as access is increased. This quantitative study considers three proxies of educational quality: (1) prior academic achievement of the student, (2) attrition and retention rates and (3) progression rates, to establish whether educational…

Access and quality in South African higher education: the twin ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

with the transformation agenda in South Africa. It is proposed that a comprehensive quality assurance framework with embedded commitment to access is likely to respond appropriately to national development prerogatives of higher education access. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 21 (3) 2007: pp. 385-399.

Investigation of Malaysian Higher Education Quality Culture and Workforce Performance

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Ali, Hairuddin Mohd; Musah, Mohammed Borhandden

2012-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the quality culture and workforce performance in the Malaysian higher education sector. The study also aims to test and validate the psychometric properties of the quality culture and workforce performance instruments used in the study. Design/methodology/approach: A total…

Service Quality, Students' Satisfaction and Behavioural Intentions in STEM and IC Higher Education Institutions

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Dunja Meštrović

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Service quality, students' satisfaction and their behavioural intentions are recognised as rather important aspects in higher education institution's strategy in a competitive higher education marketplace, which enable them to attract and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM and information-communication (IC study areas. This research aimed to study the relationship between service quality, students' satisfaction and behavioural intentions of STEM and IC students of the University of Rijeka Departments. Partial least squares structural equation modelling using SmartPLS 3.0 software was performed on student survey data, confirming a direct, positive and significant relationship between higher education service quality and students' satisfaction and between students' satisfaction and their behavioural intentions. According to indirect effects analysis, perceived higher education service quality has an an indirect, positive and significant impact on students' behavioural intentions through students' satisfaction. The results indicate that higher education service quality is an imperative for higher education sector. Based on the findings of this study, useful to policy makers in the services industry in general and in higher education sector in particular, improvements can be planned all service quality dimensions as a key factor to attract, educate and retain STEM and IC students in Croatia.

The Quality of Educational Services- Institutional Case Study From the Romanian Higher Education

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Luminiţa NICOLESCU

2010-02-01

Full Text Available The present paper approaches the topic of the quality of educational services, emphasizing on higher education, as a field of services of large public interest that has high influences at individual, group and society level. The paper starts by looking at the influencing factors for the quality of higher education from the perspective of the regulations and practices at both European and national level. In this context, the internal evaluation of quality at institutional level is a new requirement for higher education institutions in Romania. Part of the evaluation process is represented by the requirement to develop informational data bases. The paper exemplifies the results that can be obtained by monitoring quality and collecting information, and concludes with a set of recommendations for managing quality at institutional level.

Accreditation and Quality Assurance in the Egyptian Higher Education System

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Schomaker, Rahel

2015-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the quality of the Egyptian accreditation system. With a view on the high competition in the domestic labor market as well as with regards to the international competitiveness of Egyptian graduates and the potential role of Egyptian universities in the international market for higher education, a high quality of…

Placements: An Underused Vehicle for Quality Enhancement in Higher Education?

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Kettis, Asa; Ring, Lena; Gustavsson, Maria; Wallman, Andy

2013-01-01

Placements have the potential to contribute more effectively to the quality of higher education. The aim of this article is to discuss how placements can be made more worthwhile for individual students, while also contributing to the overall quality of teaching and learning at HEIs as well as to the development of workplace cultures that are…

167: CRITICALLY APPRAISE OF THE REPORTING QUALITY OF RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS ARTICLES IN THE FIELD OF DIABETES IN MEDICAL GUIDELINES IN IRAN

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Aletaha, Azadeh; Baradaran, Hamid Reza; Soltani, Akbar; Ramezani, Amir

2017-01-01

Background and aims To determine the quality of randomized controlled clinical trial reports in diabetes research in Iran and their presence in domestic and foreign credible guidelines which can imply whether randomized controlled trial articles in the field of diabetes are of good quality or not with respect to their high level of received citations, quality and credibility. Method We included RCTs conducted on Diabetes mellitus in Iran. Animal studies, educational, interventions, and non-randomized trials were excluded. This was a bibliographic study examining published journal articles involving RCTs in diabetes research from Iranian authors. A systematic search of ten databases(ISI Web of science, Scopus, PubMed, Science Direct, The Cochrane Library, Taylor & Francis Online, Biomed Central, EBSCO, ProQuest and OVID)were undertaken from July 2004–2014. We excluded duplicated publications reporting the same groups of participants and intervention two independent reviewers identify all eligible articles specifically designed data extraction form. Two reviewers assessed the quality of reporting by CONSORT 2010 (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) checklist statement and also evaluate each article with Scientometry tools in 260 valid English diabetes guidelines. Result Overall, we included 185 RCTs on diabetes mellitus, One hundred and eight five (185) studies were included and appraised. Half of them (55.7%) were published in Iranian journals. Most (89.7%) were parallel RCTs, and being performed on type2 diabetic patients (77.8%). Less than half of the CONSORT items (43.2%) were reported in studies, totally. The reporting of randomization and blinding were poor. A few studies 15.1% mentioned the method of random sequence generation and strategy of allocation concealment. And only 34.8% of trials report how blinding was applied. From 185 articles, twelve articles (10%) are presented in 260 Guidelines. Conclusion The reporting quality of abstracts of RCTs

Complications and health-related quality of life after robot-assisted versus open radical cystectomy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lauridsen, Susanne Vahr; Tønnesen, Hanne; Jensen, Bente Thoft

2017-01-01

. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that examined RARC compared to ORC were included in this review. We assessed the quality of evidence using the Cochrane Collaboration's 'Risk of bias' tool and Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. Data were extracted and analysed...... (ORC) on complications and secondary on length of stay, time back to work and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). METHODS: The databases PubMed, The Cochrane Library, Embase and CINAHL were searched. A systematic review according to the PRISMA guidelines and cumulative analysis was conducted....... RESULTS: The search retrieved 273 articles. Four RCTs were included involving overall 239 patients. The quality of the evidence was of low to moderate quality. There was no significant difference between RARC and ORC in the number of patients developing complications within 30 or 90 days postoperatively...

Engaging in Enhancement: Implications of Participatory Approaches in Higher Education Quality Assurance

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Groen, Jovan F.

2017-01-01

Stemming from increased levels of participation and diversity of the student base and from growing scrutiny on the quality of university degrees, governments have begun establishing mechanisms to monitor and support quality in higher education. Faced with administrative quality assurance structures, academics often complain that little is…

Higher Dietary Cost Is Associated with Higher Diet Quality: A Cross-Sectional Study among Selected Malaysian Adults

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Ibnteesam Pondor

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Food price is a determining factor of food choices; however its relationship with diet quality is unclear in Malaysia. This study aimed to examine socio-economic characteristics and daily dietary cost (DDC in relation to diet quality in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Dietary intake was assessed using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ and diet quality was estimated using a Malaysian Healthy Eating Index (M-HEI. DDC in Malaysian Ringgit (RM was calculated from dietary intake and national food prices. Linear regression models were fitted to determine associations between DDC and M-HEI scores and predictors of diet quality. The mean M-HEI score of respondents was 61.31 ± 10.88 and energy adjusted DDC was RM10.71/2000 kcal (USD 2.49. The highest quintile of adjusted DDC had higher M-HEI scores for all respondents (Q1: 57.14 ± 10.07 versus Q5: 63.26 ± 11.54, p = 0.001. There were also positive associations between DDC and M-HEI scores for fruits (p < 0.001 and vegetables (p = 0.017 for all respondents. Predictors of diet quality included carbohydrate (β = 0290; p < 0.001 and fat intakes (β = −0.242; p < 0.001 and energy adjusted DDC (β = 0.196; p < 0.001. Higher dietary cost is associated with healthy eating among Malaysian adults.

Higher Education Quality in Kenya: A Critical Reflection of Key Challenges

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Odhiambo, George O.

2011-01-01

This article examines the unique challenges facing Kenya's public higher education institutions. It explores the struggle to develop quality and quality assurance mechanisms against a background of rapidly diminishing income, brain drain, political interference and the negative aspects of globalisation. The challenges have consequently led to a…

Embedding Quality Culture in Higher Education in Ghana: Quality Control and Assessment in Emerging Private Universities

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Ntim, Stephen

2014-01-01

High quality provision has been one of the key aims of the current reforms in higher educational institutions across the globe since the beginning of the century and the millennium. Consequently this has led to the increasing demand for quality assurance (QA). This report identifies those institutional processes and structures that support the…

An Empirical Investigation into the Construct of Higher Education Service Quality

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Jaroslav Dado

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The paper addresses the issue of higher education service quality measurement and stresses the need of devising psychometrically as well as diagnostically sound measurement instruments, suitable to the context being investigated. The study builds upon the SERVQUAL scale, the inventory successfully tried and tested across a broad spectrum of service industries. Notwithstanding significant resemblance with the original five dimensions of service quality, research findings indicate six-dimensional structure of the construct of higher education service quality. Study performed on a sample of Engineering Management students reveals perceptions falling short of expectations across all of the determinants of service quality. The largest negative gap between students’ perceptions and expectations has been discovered concerning the potential for future career development, whereas research findings indicate the same dimension to be the most important predictor of students’ future behavioral intentions. In an attempt to inspire further interests in this field, managerial implications and directions for future research have been discussed.

Quality Management in Higher Education: Review and Perspectives

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Papanthymou, Anastasia; Darra, Maria

2017-01-01

This paper is a review which presents a summary of 52 studies from 2006 to 2016 in Quality Management (QM) within Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). The aim of this paper is to submit evidence regarding the level of QM in HEIs, particularly in developing countries, and also to enhance the research in the field of QM. The findings reveal that from…

Yoga and Quality of Life in Women with Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Systematic Review.

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McGovern, Christina E; Cheung, Corjena

2018-06-14

Primary dysmenorrhea is a prevalent condition causing quality of life (QOL) reduction for many women, resulting from pain as well as parallel social and psychological distress. Yoga reduces pain and sympathetic reactivity, thus promoting QOL. This article reports a systematic review of the evidence for the effectiveness of yoga as a QOL improvement method for women with primary dysmenorrhea. The PRISMA guidelines were used in preparation of this review. Ovid MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were screened through January 2017 using the keywords yoga, meditation, menstrual cycle, dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, and prostaglandins. English-language randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies regarding yoga, primary dysmenorrhea, and QOL were eligible; all yoga styles were included. Two independent reviewers rated the methodological quality of each study selected for review using the Downs and Black checklist; possible scores ranged from 0 to 32. Ratings were established through consensus. The search yielded a total of 378 articles, of which 14 (age range 13-45 years, N = 1409) met the criteria for final review: 8 RCTs and 6 quasi-experimental studies. Downs and Black ratings were predominantly moderate in quality with moderate risk of bias, ranging from 15 to 23 (RCTs) and 10 to 17 (quasi-experimental studies). Statistically significant improvements along most QOL domains, including physical pain, sleep, concentration, negative feelings, social relationships, work capacity, and overall QOL, were identified after a yoga intervention. Results indicate preliminary evidence for yoga as a safe and effective QOL improvement method for women with primary dysmenorrhea. Practitioners may consider yoga for management of primary dysmenorrhea. However, future research using larger RCTs of high methodological quality is needed to

Quality assurance in transnational higher education: a case study of the tropEd network.

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Zwanikken, Prisca A C; Peterhans, Bernadette; Dardis, Lorraine; Scherpbier, Albert

2013-03-27

Transnational or cross-border higher education has rapidly expanded since the 1980s. Together with that expansion issues on quality assurance came to the forefront. This article aims to identify key issues regarding quality assurance of transnational higher education and discusses the quality assurance of the tropEd Network for International Health in Higher Education in relation to these key issues. Literature review and review of documents. From the literature the following key issues regarding transnational quality assurance were identified and explored: comparability of quality assurance frameworks, true collaboration versus erosion of national education sovereignty, accreditation agencies and transparency. The tropEd network developed a transnational quality assurance framework for the network. The network accredits modules through a rigorous process which has been accepted by major stakeholders. This process was a participatory learning process and at the same time the process worked positive for the relations between the institutions. The development of the quality assurance framework and the process provides a potential example for others.

Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Reflection, Criticism, and Change

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Yingqiang, Zhang; Yongjian, Su

2016-01-01

Quality assurance in modern higher education is both an accountability-oriented ideology and a technological method. It has also evolved into a increasingly rationalist and professionalized power mechanism. Its advocacy of compliance, technological mythology, and imbalance between power and responsibility are inherent disadvantages of higher…

Criteria that ensure the quality of higher education in tourism and sport management study programme

OpenAIRE

Mikalauskas, Rimantas; Jasinskas, Edmundas; Švagždienė, Biruta

2012-01-01

The quality of higher education is predominantly determined by the work of academic staff and organization of instructional process; the criteria of higher education institution’s infrastructure are of moderate importance. Professional qualities of teaching staff that are related to communication with students during lectures are important for quality assurance; effective communication with others was found to be the most important personal quality of teaching staff. Professional qualities we...

Scenarios of Quality Assurance of Stakeholder Relationships in Finnish Higher Education Institutions

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Lyytinen, Anu; Kohtamäki, Vuokko; Kivistö, Jussi; Pekkola, Elias; Hölttä, Seppo

2017-01-01

Although the role and significance of the external stakeholders of higher education institutions has grown in recent years, quality assurance of stakeholder relationships remains a new phenomenon in the management practices of higher education institutions and in higher education research. Based on interviews and expert panel data, this article…

Russian Higher Education and European Standards of Quality Assurance

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Motova, Galina; Pykko, Ritta

2012-01-01

This article considers the relevance and implementation of European approaches to quality assurance in the context of the Russian educational system. It covers the issues of transformation of the higher education system during the post-Soviet period, specific features of the state accreditation system, the impact of the European Standards and…

Rewarding quality teaching in higher education: the evading dream ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Teaching, and specifically quality teaching, has for many centuries been the defining characteristic of the academic profession. However, since the dawning of the 20th century, it seems that the very basis of the global higher education institutional reward system is the belief that working with, contributing to, and pursuing ...

Quality Education and the Marketplace: An Exploration of Neoliberalism and its Impact on Higher Education

OpenAIRE

Mandy Frake

2008-01-01

This paper is an in attempt to open discussion about the impact of globalization and theories of neoliberalism on higher education. More specifically, viewing higher education institutions as a market place, where the more a product costs, the greater supply and quality of the product should be received; the quality of education received by university students should also reflect this. Considering the conflict between teaching and research in higher education, quality of education beco...

Mediatizing Higher Education Policies: Discourses about Quality Education in the Media

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Cabalin, Cristian

2015-01-01

This article presents a critical-political discourse analysis of the media debate over quality assurance in higher education, which occurred in Chile after the 2011 student movement. Students criticized the privatization of higher education and the multiple flaws of this sector, which included corruption scandals during the process of quality…

"INTEGRATED QUALITY MANAGEMENT" AS A SUBJECT IN HIGHER EDUCATION CURRICULUM

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Stevan Živojinović

2007-03-01

Full Text Available The importance of introduction of "Integrated quality management" into higher education curricula arises from the need for students to grasp synergetic application of new and advanced approaches to theoretical and practical management quality and process based management in particular as well as understanding a unified concept which improves conformity and linking of all levels in management hierarchy (normative, strategic and operational toward accomplishment of successful business performance. A curriculum is proposed (as a contribution to a map of necessary knowledge to be expected from prospective quality personnel with appropriate topics in accordance with studies objective and chosen up-to-date options of management concepts and methods.

Yellowjackets use nest-based cues to differentially exploit higher-quality resources

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Taylor, Benjamin J.; Schalk, Dane R.; Jeanne, Robert L.

2010-12-01

While foraging, social insects encounter a dynamic array of food resources of varying quality and profitability. Because food acquisition influences colony growth and fitness, natural selection can be expected to favor colonies that allocate their overall foraging effort so as to maximize their intake of high-quality nutrients. Social wasps lack recruitment communication, but previous studies of vespine wasps have shown that olfactory cues influence foraging decisions. Odors associated with food brought into the nest by successful foragers prompt naive foragers to leave the nest and search for the source of those odors. Left unanswered, however, is the question of whether naive foragers take food quality into account in making their decisions about whether or not to search. In this study, two different concentrations of sucrose solutions, scented differently, were inserted directly into each of three Vespula germanica nests. At a feeder away from the nest, arriving foragers were given a choice between two 1.5 M sucrose solutions with the same scents as those in the nest. We show that wasps chose higher-quality resources in the field using information in the form of intranidal food-associated odor cues. By this simple mechanism, the colony can bias the allocation of its foraging effort toward higher-quality resources in the environment.

Student satisfaction as an element of education quality monitoring in innovative higher education institution

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Razinkina, Elena; Pankova, Ludmila; Trostinskaya, Irina; Pozdeeva, Elena; Evseeva, Lidiya; Tanova, Anna

2018-03-01

Topicality of the research is confirmed by increasing student involvement into the educational process, when not only the academic staff and administration participate in the improvement of higher education institution's activity, but also education customers - students. This adds a new dimension to the issue of monitoring education quality and student satisfaction with higher education. This issue echoes the ideas of M. Weber about the relationship between such components as cognitive motivation, personal development and student satisfaction with higher education. Besides, it is essential to focus on the approach of R. Barnet to defining the quality of education with the emphasis on a priority of development of an educational institution as the system that meets customers' needs. Monitoring student satisfaction with education quality has become an integral part of the educational process not only in a number of European universities, which have used this monitoring for decades, but also in Russian universities, which are interested in education quality improvement. Leading universities in Russia, including Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, are implementing policies targeted at increasing student satisfaction with higher education quality. Education quality monitoring as a key element in the system of providing feedback to students contributes greatly to this process.

Quality Assurance in Higher Education in 20 MENA Economies

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El Hassan, K.

2013-01-01

The last decades have witnessed an increased concern in higher education over accountability, quality and productivity, and a struggle to meet increasingly complex challenges. This is more so in Middle East and North African (MENA) economies that witnessed a large expansion as a result of a high social demand and massification policies adopted by…

Stakeholder Perception of Service Quality in Qatar Higher Education Institutions: An Application to Qatar University

OpenAIRE

Shurair, Amal S.

2017-01-01

Managing quality of services offered by institutions of higher education is important in any country due to the inherent aim of producing quality graduates from programs offered in the university. Qatar has made substantial investments in higher education. Qatar University, being the national university of the country, the perception of stakeholders on the service quality in education becomes an important factor for developing a quality education system. Therefore, the main goal of this thesi...

Evolution of Randomized Trials in Advanced/Metastatic Soft Tissue Sarcoma: End Point Selection, Surrogacy, and Quality of Reporting.

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Zer, Alona; Prince, Rebecca M; Amir, Eitan; Abdul Razak, Albiruni

2016-05-01

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in soft tissue sarcoma (STS) have used varying end points. The surrogacy of intermediate end points, such as progression-free survival (PFS), response rate (RR), and 3-month and 6-month PFS (3moPFS and 6moPFS) with overall survival (OS), remains unknown. The quality of efficacy and toxicity reporting in these studies is also uncertain. A systematic review of systemic therapy RCTs in STS was performed. Surrogacy between intermediate end points and OS was explored using weighted linear regression for the hazard ratio for OS with the hazard ratio for PFS or the odds ratio for RR, 3moPFS, and 6moPFS. The quality of reporting for efficacy and toxicity was also evaluated. Fifty-two RCTs published between 1974 and 2014, comprising 9,762 patients, met the inclusion criteria. There were significant correlations between PFS and OS (R = 0.61) and between RR and OS (R = 0.51). Conversely, there were nonsignificant correlations between 3moPFS and 6moPFS with OS. A reduction in the use of RR as the primary end point was observed over time, favoring time-based events (P for trend = .02). In 14% of RCTs, the primary end point was not met, but the study was reported as being positive. Toxicity was comprehensively reported in 47% of RCTs, whereas 14% inadequately reported toxicity. In advanced STS, PFS and RR seem to be appropriate surrogates for OS. There is poor correlation between OS and both 3moPFS and 6moPFS. As such, caution is urged with the use of these as primary end points in randomized STS trials. The quality of toxicity reporting and interpretation of results is suboptimal. © 2016 by American Society of Clinical Oncology.

A Systematic Review of the Cost-Effectiveness of Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists: What Is the Quality of the Evidence?

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Faith Donald

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Improved quality of care and control of healthcare costs are important factors influencing decisions to implement nurse practitioner (NP and clinical nurse specialist (CNS roles. Objective. To assess the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs evaluating NP and CNS cost-effectiveness (defined broadly to also include studies measuring health resource utilization. Design. Systematic review of RCTs of NP and CNS cost-effectiveness reported between 1980 and July 2012. Results. 4,397 unique records were reviewed. We included 43 RCTs in six groupings, NP-outpatient (n=11, NP-transition (n=5, NP-inpatient (n=2, CNS-outpatient (n=11, CNS-transition (n=13, and CNS-inpatient (n=1. Internal validity was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool; 18 (42% studies were at low, 17 (39% were at moderate, and eight (19% at high risk of bias. Few studies included detailed descriptions of the education, experience, or role of the NPs or CNSs, affecting external validity. Conclusions. We identified 43 RCTs evaluating the cost-effectiveness of NPs and CNSs using criteria that meet current definitions of the roles. Almost half the RCTs were at low risk of bias. Incomplete reporting of study methods and lack of details about NP or CNS education, experience, and role create challenges in consolidating the evidence of the cost-effectiveness of these roles.

Quality assurance systems of higher education - The case of european institutions: origin, evolution and trends

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Ángela Corengia

2014-11-01

Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1983-4535.2014v7n3p61 The purpose of this research is to analyze the origin, evolution, performance and trends of higher education quality assurance systems in the following European countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom and France. It also studies the performance and impact of the organizations that join the European Quality Assurance Agencies together. The main sources of data collection were in situ semi-structured interviews to members of these agencies. It was found that in higher education institutions there is a strong trend towards the development of ‘internal quality assurance systems' in response to the public policies known as 'quality audits'. This overview about what is taking place in Europe may provide innovative instruments that could be considered for higher education quality evaluation and accreditation in Latin-American countries: quality audits, disciplinary agencies, evaluation of the quality assurance agencies, among others.

Total Quality Management in Higher Education: Applying Deming's Fourteen Points.

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Masters, Robert J.; Leiker, Linda

1992-01-01

This article presents guidelines to aid administrators of institutions of higher education in applying the 14 principles of Total Quality Management. The principles stress understanding process improvements, handling variation, fostering prediction, and using psychology to capitalize on human resources. (DB)

Reconciling Organisational Culture and External Quality Assurance in Higher Education

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Naidoo, Dhaya

2013-01-01

Organisational culture and external quality assurance have both been presented as significant drivers of effectiveness, efficiency and excellence in higher education institutions. However, these assumptions have not been critically examined given the philosophical, conceptual and methodological contestations surrounding both constructs. A…

Pedagogy, Accountability, and Perceptions of Quality by Type of Higher Education in Egypt and Jordan

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Assaad, Ragui; Badawy, Eslam; Krafft, Caroline

2016-01-01

A number of reasons have been proposed for the poor quality of higher education in the Arab world, including the poor incentive structures of public higher education institutions. The expansion of private higher education has been hailed as an important part of enhancing incentives and thus improving education quality. However, it is not clear…

Students’ perception of quality in higher education: An empirical investigation

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Zafrul Allam

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Students’ evaluation of quality in higher education is becoming increasingly important and widely accepted. Various researchers have reported that “high quality” education creates sustainability among students to accomplish their goals over a period of time. The intention of the present study was to explore students’ perceptions of quality in higher education in terms of curriculum content, learning and teaching experiences, institutional resources and outcome and assessment. A total of 91 students were randomly selected from the business and engineering colleges within Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to obtain accurate results pertaining to the motif of the research. The findings revealed that total institutional factors emerged as one of the most prominent predictors of the outcome and assessment within the two different aforementioned disciplines. This paper concludes with suggestions for further investigation.

Quality of reporting in infertility journals.

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Glujovsky, Demian; Boggino, Carolina; Riestra, Barbara; Coscia, Andrea; Sueldo, Carlos E; Ciapponi, Agustín

2015-01-01

To evaluate whether fertility and top gynecology journals indexed in PubMed require the use of reporting guidelines and to identify the percentage of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in 2013 that were written following CONSORT guidelines in the top four fertility journals (by their highest impact factor). Cross-sectional study evaluating instructions for authors and RCTs published in fertility journals. Academic institution. None. None. Proportion of instruction-for-authors documents that suggested or required the use of reporting guidelines, and proportion of RCTs published in 2013 that accomplished the CONSORT checklist. In 47% (16/34) of the journals one or more reporting guidelines were mentioned in the instructions for authors' documents. PRISMA and CONSORT were the most commonly mentioned reporting guidelines. None of the analyzed RCTs completed the 25 items of CONSORT guideline. Sequence generation or allocation concealment was not described in 69% of the studies. One-third of the journals did not publish a flowchart, 72% did not show relative and absolute size-effect measures, and 42% did not use measures of imprecision. In the summaries, 42% did not discuss the limitations of the study and 78% did not mention the generalizability of the results. Less than half of the analyzed peer-reviewed journals request the authors to use reporting guidelines. Nevertheless, among the top fertility and gynecology journals, reporting guidelines are widely mentioned. Overall, accomplishment of CONSORT items was suboptimal. Editorial boards, reviewers, and authors should join efforts to improve the quality of reporting. Copyright © 2015 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Psychometric Quality of a Student Evaluation of Teaching Survey in Higher Education

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Oon, Pey-Tee; Spencer, Benson; Kam, Chester Chun Seng

2017-01-01

Student evaluations of teaching (SET) are used globally by higher education institutions for performance assessment of academic staff and evaluation of course quality. Higher education institutions commonly develop their own SETs to measure variables deemed relevant to them. However, "home-grown" SETs are rarely assessed…

Virtual reality exposure therapy for the treatment of anxiety disorders: an evaluation of research quality.

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McCann, Russell A; Armstrong, Christina M; Skopp, Nancy A; Edwards-Stewart, Amanda; Smolenski, Derek J; June, Jennifer D; Metzger-Abamukong, Melinda; Reger, Greg M

2014-08-01

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) support the effectiveness of virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) for anxiety disorders; however, the overall quality of the VRET RCT literature base has yet to be evaluated. This study reviewed 27 VRET RCTs and the degree of adherence to 8 RCT research design criteria derived from existing standards. Adherence to the study quality criteria was generally low as the articles met an average 2.85 criteria (SD=1.56). None of the studies met more than six quality criteria. Study quality did not predict effect size; however, a reduction in effect size magnitude was observed for studies with larger sample sizes when comparing VRET to non-active control groups. VRET may be an effective method of treatment but caution should be exercised in interpreting the existing body of literature supporting VRET relative to existing standards of care. The need for well-designed VRET research is discussed. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Quality Education and the Marketplace: An Exploration of Neoliberalism and its Impact on Higher Education

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Mandy Frake

2010-05-01

Full Text Available This paper is an in attempt to open discussion about the impact of globalization and theories of neoliberalism on higher education. More specifically, viewing higher education institutions as a market place, where the more a product costs, the greater supply and quality of the product should be received; the quality of education received by university students should also reflect this. Considering the conflict between teaching and research in higher education, quality of education becomes questionable. This paper explores issues of neoliberalism resulting in a greater demand for the completion of research in higher education institutions. Furthermore, the imperialism of higher education leading towards the demand for more research, the teaching versus research nexus within universities, and discussion of how these theories impact international students will be examined throughout this paper

Higher Dietary Cost Is Associated with Higher Diet Quality: A Cross-Sectional Study among Selected Malaysian Adults.

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Pondor, Ibnteesam; Gan, Wan Ying; Appannah, Geeta

2017-09-16

Food price is a determining factor of food choices; however its relationship with diet quality is unclear in Malaysia. This study aimed to examine socio-economic characteristics and daily dietary cost (DDC) in relation to diet quality in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Dietary intake was assessed using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and diet quality was estimated using a Malaysian Healthy Eating Index (M-HEI). DDC in Malaysian Ringgit (RM) was calculated from dietary intake and national food prices. Linear regression models were fitted to determine associations between DDC and M-HEI scores and predictors of diet quality. The mean M-HEI score of respondents was 61.31 ± 10.88 and energy adjusted DDC was RM10.71/2000 kcal (USD 2.49). The highest quintile of adjusted DDC had higher M-HEI scores for all respondents (Q1: 57.14 ± 10.07 versus Q5: 63.26 ± 11.54, p = 0.001). There were also positive associations between DDC and M-HEI scores for fruits ( p diet quality included carbohydrate (β = 0290; p healthy eating among Malaysian adults.

Association between framing of the research question using the PICOT format and reporting quality of randomized controlled trials

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Thabane Lehana

2010-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Experts recommend formulating a structured research question to guide the research design. However, the basis for this recommendation has not been formally evaluated. The aim of this study was to examine if a structured research question using the PICOT (Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome, Time-frame format is associated with a better reporting quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs. Methods We evaluated 89 RCTs reports published in three endocrinology journals in 2005 and 2006, the quality of reporting of which was assessed in a previous study. We examined whether the reports stated each of the five elements of a structured research question: population, intervention, comparator, outcome and time-frame. A PICOT score was created with a possible score between 0 and 5. Outcomes were: 1 a 14-point overall reporting quality score (OQS based on the Consolidated Standards for Reporting Trials; and 2 a 3-point key score (KS, based on allocation concealment, blinding and use of intention-to-treat analysis. We conducted multivariable regression analyses using generalized estimating equations to determine if a higher PICOT score or the use of a structured research question were independently associated with a better reporting quality. Journal of publication, funding source and sample size were identified as factors associated with OQS in our previous report on this dataset, and therefore included in the model. Results A higher PICOT score was independently associated with OQS (incidence rate ratio (IRR = 1.021, 95% CI: 1.012 to 1.029 and KS (IRR = 1.142, 95% CI: 1.079 to 1.210. A structured research question was present in 33.7% of the reports and it was associated with a better OQS (IRR = 1.095, 95% CI 1.059-1.132 and KS (IRR = 1.530, 95% CI 1.311-1.786. Conclusions Better framing of the research question using the PICOT format is independently associated with better overall reporting quality - although the effect

Factors that Impact Quality of E-Teaching/Learning Technologies in Higher Education

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Daukilas, Sigitas; Kaciniene, Irma; Vaisnoriene, Daiva; Vascila, Vytautas

2008-01-01

The article analyzes and assesses factors that have impact upon the quality of eTeaching/learning technologies in higher education; it is on their basis that the concept of eTeaching/learning quality is denied. Research data about the students' motives in choosing various teaching/learning technologies for the development of their competence are…

Quality assurance policies and practices in Scandinavian higher education systems: convergence or different paths?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kalpazidou Schmidt, Evanthia

2017-01-01

Because there is close cooperation on quality assurance in the Scandinavian countries, one would expect there to be convergence of quality assurance policies and practices in Scandinavian higher education. Few studies have analysed these quality assurance policies and practices from a comparative...... quality assurance. The debate is compelling with regard to the Swedish case in particular, with its ‘one size fits all’ approach and exclusive focus on outcomes which has been heavily criticised by the higher education institutions and has turned out to be controversial from the European viewpoint....... viewpoint. Based on empirical evidence produced in connection with studies of recent quality reforms in Scandinavia and an approach based on linking diffusion and translation theories with institutionalist perspectives focusing on path dependency, the paper contributes to the current debate on Scandinavian...

Higher Education Quality: Perception Differences among Internal and External Stakeholders

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Abidin, Munirul

2015-01-01

Conceptually, education quality of higher education can be determined by evaluation of their stakeholders's satisfaction level. The purpose of this study is to describe how students as external stakeholder and lecturers as internal stakeholder, perceived their satisfaction of learning experience in the university. This study was conducted in…

Quality Assurance in Higher Technical Education and the Context of Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development

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Olufunmilayo T. Iyunade, Ph.D

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Recent empirical evidences on higher technical education at a national scale focused on the relevance, student’s poor perception, low enrolment and progression rates, and the growing impact of globalization on the management of higher technical and vocational education with little or no reference point to the factor of quality assurance. This paper therefore correlates quality assurance factors in higher technical education and the context of youth empowerment for sustainable development. A survey of public technical colleges was done in Ogun State. From an estimate population of 637 final year students and 28 instructors and management staff, a simple of 376 students and 17 instructors and management staff were selected using the stratify random sampling technique. A 4-point rating scale validated questionnaires tagged: ‘Higher Technical Education, Youth Empowerment and Sustainable Development Scale (HTEYESDS (r=0.79, complemented with focus Group Discussion (FGD was used for data collection. Three research questions were raised and answered. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics of Pearson correlation, multiple regression and analysis of variance at 0.05 apha level. Results showed that poor quality assurance limits the capacity of higher technical education in the empowerment of youth for sustainable development (82.6%. Quality assurance factors significantly correlated with higher technical education in the empowerment of youth for sustainable development (r=0.188; P < 0.05. It was therefore recommended that government should neither neglect nor compromise the factors of quality assurance in higher technical education as they predicts youth empowerment drive in the system.

Balanced Scorecard: A Strategy for the Quality Improvement of Islamic Higher Education

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Ilyasin, Mukhamd; Zamroni

2017-01-01

The main issue in improving the quality of Islamic Higher Education is to increase the competence and professionalism of teachers and education personnel to achieve its vision and mission in the middle of the complexity of the demands of society and the changing times. so that the quality of education and governance of Islamic Religion clean and…

Development of a framework to improve the process of recruitment to randomised controlled trials (RCTs): the SEAR (Screened, Eligible, Approached, Randomised) framework.

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Wilson, Caroline; Rooshenas, Leila; Paramasivan, Sangeetha; Elliott, Daisy; Jepson, Marcus; Strong, Sean; Birtle, Alison; Beard, David J; Halliday, Alison; Hamdy, Freddie C; Lewis, Rebecca; Metcalfe, Chris; Rogers, Chris A; Stein, Robert C; Blazeby, Jane M; Donovan, Jenny L

2018-01-19

Research has shown that recruitment to trials is a process that stretches from identifying potentially eligible patients, through eligibility assessment, to obtaining informed consent. The length and complexity of this pathway means that many patients do not have the opportunity to consider participation. This article presents the development of a simple framework to document, understand and improve the process of trial recruitment. Eight RCTs integrated a QuinteT Recruitment Intervention (QRI) into the main trial, feasibility or pilot study. Part of the QRI required mapping the patient recruitment pathway using trial-specific screening and recruitment logs. A content analysis compared the logs to identify aspects of the recruitment pathway and process that were useful in monitoring and improving recruitment. Findings were synthesised to develop an optimised simple framework that can be used in a wide range of RCTs. The eight trials recorded basic information about patients screened for trial participation and randomisation outcome. Three trials systematically recorded reasons why an individual was not enrolled in the trial, and further details why they were not eligible or approached, or declined randomisation. A framework to facilitate clearer recording of the recruitment process and reasons for non-participation was developed: SEAR - Screening, to identify potentially eligible trial participants; Eligibility, assessed against the trial protocol inclusion/exclusion criteria; Approach, the provision of oral and written information and invitation to participate in the trial, and Randomised or not, with the outcome of randomisation or treatment received. The SEAR framework encourages the collection of information to identify recruitment obstacles and facilitate improvements to the recruitment process. SEAR can be adapted to monitor recruitment to most RCTs, but is likely to add most value in trials where recruitment problems are anticipated or evident. Further work

Quality assurance and evaluation system in japanese higher education

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Ana Mami Yamaguchi

2016-03-01

Full Text Available Abstract In this paper we aim to contribute to the debate over accountability and assessment of higher education (HE by introducing the Japanese system. We first discuss the circumstances and issues surrounding Japanese HE and then examine the historical development of the quality assurance and evaluation system. Since the 1990s, with the implementation of policies that focused on liberalization, deregulation and increased institutional autonomy, the role of the government has shifted from setting strict regulations and quality standards to organizing an evaluation system for assessing the learning outcomes and improving accountability of the HE institutions. Finally, we suggest how Japan may take hints from Brazil in organizing an evaluation system on a national level that can more efficiently support and assess HE institutions

The Effects of Feedback on Adherence to Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of RCTs.

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Seewoodharry, Mansha D; Maconachie, Gail D E; Gillies, Clare L; Gottlob, Irene; McLean, Rebecca J

2017-08-01

The aim of this systematic review is to determine whether providing feedback, guided by subjective or objective measures of adherence, improves adherence to treatment. Data sources included MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO, and reference lists of retrieved articles. Only RCTs comparing the effect of feedback on adherence outcome were included. Three independent reviewers extracted data for all potentially eligible studies using an adaptation of the Cochrane Library data extraction sheet. The primary outcome, change in adherence, was obtained by measuring the difference between adherence at baseline visit (prior to feedback) and at the last visit (post-feedback). Twenty-four studies were included in the systematic review, and 16 found a significant improvement in adherence in the intervention group (change in adherence range, -13% to +22%), whereas adherence worsened in the control group (change in adherence range, -32% to 10.2%). Meta-analysis included six studies, and the pooled effect showed that mean percentage adherence increased by 10.02% (95% CI=3.15%, 16.89%, p=0.004) more between baseline and follow-up in the intervention groups compared with control groups. Meta-regression confirmed that study quality, form of monitoring adherence, delivery of feedback, or study duration did not influence effect size. Feedback guided by objective or subjective measures of adherence improves adherence and, perhaps more importantly, prevents worsening of adherence over time even when only small absolute improvements in adherence were noted. Increased use of feedback to improve treatment adherence has the potential to reduce avoidable healthcare costs caused by non-adherence. Copyright © 2017 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Professional medical writing support and the quality of randomised controlled trial reporting: a cross-sectional study.

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Gattrell, William T; Hopewell, Sally; Young, Kate; Farrow, Paul; White, Richard; Wager, Elizabeth; Winchester, Christopher C

2016-02-21

Authors may choose to work with professional medical writers when writing up their research for publication. We examined the relationship between medical writing support and the quality and timeliness of reporting of the results of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Cross-sectional study. Primary reports of RCTs published in BioMed Central journals from 2000 to 16 July 2014, subdivided into those with medical writing support (n=110) and those without medical writing support (n=123). Proportion of items that were completely reported from a predefined subset of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) checklist (12 items known to be commonly poorly reported), overall acceptance time (from manuscript submission to editorial acceptance) and quality of written English as assessed by peer reviewers. The effect of funding source and publication year was examined. The number of articles that completely reported at least 50% of the CONSORT items assessed was higher for those with declared medical writing support (39.1% (43/110 articles); 95% CI 29.9% to 48.9%) than for those without (21.1% (26/123 articles); 95% CI 14.3% to 29.4%). Articles with declared medical writing support were more likely than articles without such support to have acceptable written English (81.1% (43/53 articles); 95% CI 67.6% to 90.1% vs 47.9% (23/48 articles); 95% CI 33.5% to 62.7%). The median time of overall acceptance was longer for articles with declared medical writing support than for those without (167 days (IQR 114.5-231 days) vs 136 days (IQR 77-193 days)). In this sample of open-access journals, declared professional medical writing support was associated with more complete reporting of clinical trial results and higher quality of written English. Medical writing support may play an important role in raising the quality of clinical trial reporting. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go

Evaluating and Enhancing Outcomes Assessment Quality in Higher Education Programs

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Wolf, Kenneth; Goodwin, Laura

2007-01-01

Accreditation is a mark of distinction indicating that an institution has met high standards set by the profession, and an increasingly important feature of the accreditation process in higher education is "outcomes assessment." This article presents two rubrics for evaluating the quality of an institution's outcomes assessment system. One rubric…

Quality of higher education and the labor market in developing countries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Boccanfuso, Dorothée; Larouche, Alexandre; Trandafir, Mircea

2015-01-01

While many studies examine the effect of primary education quality on labor market outcomes in developing countries, little is known about the effects at higher levels. We exploit the quasi-experiment provided by a large-scale education reform launched in Senegal in 2000 to investigate how quality...... improvements at the university level affect employment. Our difference-in-difference estimates suggest that young high-skilled workers experienced a nine percentage-point employment gain relative to older workers. They are also more likely to have “better” jobs (in the service industry or government......), suggesting a reduction in the mismatch between the quality of high-skill labor demanded and supplied....

The Effectiveness of the Higher Education Quality Assessment System: Problems and Countermeasures in China

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Guangli, Zhou

2016-01-01

The effectiveness of the higher education quality assessment system is essentially a matter of policy evaluation. On the macro level, such a system refers to external quality assessment, which includes government evaluation, quality certification, and university rankings. Depending on the degree of government intervention, the external quality…

A Risk and Standards Based Approach to Quality Assurance in Australia's Diverse Higher Education Sector

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Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, 2015

2015-01-01

The Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency's (TEQSA's) role is to assure that quality standards are being met by all registered higher education providers. This paper explains how TEQSA's risk-based approach to assuring higher education standards is applied in broad terms to a diverse sector. This explanation is…

Positive Attitude toward Healthy Eating Predicts Higher Diet Quality at All Cost Levels of Supermarkets☆

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Aggarwal, Anju; Monsivais, Pablo; Cook, Andrea J.; Drewnowski, Adam

2014-01-01

Shopping at low-cost supermarkets has been associated with higher obesity rates. This study examined whether attitudes toward healthy eating are independently associated with diet quality among shoppers at low-cost, medium-cost, and high-cost supermarkets. Data on socioeconomic status (SES), attitudes toward healthy eating, and supermarket choice were collected using a telephone survey of a representative sample of adult residents of King County, WA. Dietary intake data were based on a food frequency questionnaire. Thirteen supermarket chains were stratified into three categories: low, medium, and high cost, based on a market basket of 100 commonly eaten foods. Diet-quality measures were energy density, mean adequacy ratio, and total servings of fruits and vegetables. The analytical sample consisted of 963 adults. Multivariable regressions with robust standard error examined relations between diet quality, supermarket type, attitudes, and SES. Shopping at higher-cost supermarkets was associated with higher-quality diets. These associations persisted after adjusting for SES, but were eliminated after taking attitudinal measures into account. Supermarket shoppers with positive attitudes toward healthy eating had equally higher-quality diets, even if they shopped at low-, medium-, or high-cost supermarkets, independent of SES and other covariates. These findings imply that shopping at low-cost supermarkets does not prevent consumers from having high-quality diets, as long as they attach importance to good nutrition. Promoting nutrition-education strategies among supermarkets, particularly those catering to low-income groups, can help to improve diet quality. PMID:23916974

Analysis of professional quality of students majored with logistics management in the higher vocational college based on AHP

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Dai Chengxia

2016-01-01

Full Text Available To strength training of the professional quality of students in the higher vocational college, and then explore an effective way to train the professional quality of students in the higher vocational college is a very necessary and urgent task. On this basis, this paper aims at investigating the situation of the professional quality of the students majored with the logistics management in the higher vocational college according to the requirements of the industry and enterprise, constructs a multi-dimensional space of the professional quality by the use of the AHP analysis method, and proposes the training method of the professional quality, in order to further improve the professional quality of students in the higher vocational college, and provide reference for the training of the students majored with the logistics management in the higher vocational college.

The expansion of higher education: A consideration of control, funding and quality

OpenAIRE

Bathmaker, A.-M.

2003-01-01

Since the Robbins Report of 1963, higher education in the UK has undergone major expansion, changing it from an elite to a mass system. This chapter explores the changing socio-economic context in which this transformation has taken place, and considers how the expansion of higher education has raised issues of control, quality and funding.

Academic goals and learning quality in higher education students.

Science.gov (United States)

Valle, Antonio; Núñez, José C; Cabanach, Ramón G; González-Pienda, Julio A; Rodríguez, Susana; Rosário, Pedro; Muñoz-Cadavid, María A; Cerezo, Rebeca

2009-05-01

In this paper, the relations between academic goals and various indicators that define the quality of the learning process are analyzed. The purpose was to determine to what extent high, moderate, or low levels of academic goals were positively or negatively related to effort regulation, the value assigned to academic tasks, meta-cognitive self-regulation, self-efficacy, beliefs about learning control, and management of time and study environment. The investigation was carried out with a sample of 632 university students (70% female and 30% male) and mean age of 21.22 (SD=2.2).The results show that learning goals, or task orientation, are positively related to all the indictors of learning quality considered herein. Although for other kinds of goals-work-avoidance goals, performance-approach goals, and performance-avoidance goals-significant relations were not found with all the indicators, there was a similar tendency of significant results in all cases; the higher the levels of these goals, the lower the levels of the indicators of learning quality.

QUALITY ASSURANCE IN RWANDAN HIGHER LEARNING EDUCATION: IS THE SYSTEM ADAPTIVE OR COMPLEX?

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Nathan Kanuma Taremwa

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Developing knowledge infrastructure by massive investments in education and training are taken as a benchmark in facilitating the acceleration and possible increases in skills, capacities and competences of Rwandan people has become apriority issue in the recent years. This notion is relevant to vision 2020 where human resource development and building of a knowledge based economy are fundamental pillars. In the past years, several policy reforms have taken place in education sector. However, the overarching question is if such reforms are becoming adaptive or complex and if such reforms will not compromise the quality of education in higher learning education in Rwanda? The main objective of the study was to investigate the impact of changes in Higher Learning Institutions on the quality of education in Rwanda. This research had three hypotheses, namely; there is an impact of changes in Higher Learning Institutions on quality of education in Rwanda; the current complexity in Rwandan education system is affecting the quality of education in HLIs; Tailoring education system to the regional reforms and implementation strategies is affecting the quality of education in Rwanda. This study was carried out in 10 higher learning institutions (5 public, 5 private and 2 Ministry of Education directorates (HEC and REB. Key informants were the senior management/head of institutions, experienced academic staff, and students. The parameters considered included; the learning methods, assessment styles, workloads, language of instruction, merging of public HLIs, curriculum, and the transformation of some private higher learning institutions into company forms. Main research instruments were questionnaires and interview guides. Both qualitative and quantitative research was collected. Analyses were done using SPSS and excel packages. Major findings indicate that the system is still in transition with indicative gaps. Ample time would therefore be necessary for

Academic Staff Quality in Higher Education: An Empirical Analysis of Portuguese Public Administration Education

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Sarrico, Cláudia S.; Alves, André A.

2016-01-01

Higher education accreditation frameworks typically consider academic staff quality a key element. This article embarks on an empirical study of what academic staff quality means, how it is measured, and how different aspects of staff quality relate to each other. It draws on the relatively nascent Portuguese experience with study programme…

Student Motivations, Quality and Status in Adult Higher Education (AHE) in China

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Wang, Naixia; Morgan, W. John

2009-01-01

This article examines an important and yet neglected aspect of the relationship between higher education and the labour market in contemporary China. It does this through a detailed case study of student motivations, quality and status in adult higher education (AHE) in the city of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. This is a region which has seen major…

Eating School Lunch Is Associated with Higher Diet Quality among Elementary School Students.

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Au, Lauren E; Rosen, Nila J; Fenton, Keenan; Hecht, Kenneth; Ritchie, Lorrene D

2016-11-01

Few studies have assessed the dietary quality of children who eat meals from home compared with school meals according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The objective of this study was to examine diet quality for elementary school students in relation to source of breakfast and lunch (whether school meal or from an outside source). An observational study was conducted of students in 43 schools in San Diego, CA, during the 2011-2012 school year. Fourth- and fifth-grade students (N=3,944) completed a diary-assisted 24-hour food recall. The Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010) scores of children who ate breakfast and lunch at school were compared with the HEI-2010 scores of children who obtained their meals from home and a combination of both school and home. Analysis of variance, χ 2 test, and generalized estimating equation models adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, grade, language, and school level clustering were performed. School lunch eaters had a higher mean±standard deviation overall diet quality score (HEI-2010=49.0±11.3) compared with students who ate a lunch obtained from home (46.1±12.2; P=0.02). There was no difference in overall diet quality score by breakfast groups. Students who ate school breakfast had higher total fruit (P=0.01) and whole fruit (P=0.0008) scores compared with students who only ate breakfast obtained from home. Students who ate school foods had higher scores for dairy (P=0.007 for breakfast and Pempty calories from solid fats and added sugars (P=0.01 for breakfast and P=0.007 for lunch). Eating school lunch was associated with higher overall diet quality compared with obtaining lunch from home. Future studies are needed that assess the influence of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act on children's diet quality. Copyright © 2016 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Need for Context-Sensitive Measures of Educational Quality in Transnational Higher Education

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Pyvis, David

2011-01-01

This paper argues that the current approach to educational quality formation in transnational higher education promotes educational imperialism, and that guidelines and practices should be altered to embrace context-sensitive measures of quality. The claims are sustained by findings from a study that investigated how academics understood and…

Positive attitude toward healthy eating predicts higher diet quality at all cost levels of supermarkets.

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Aggarwal, Anju; Monsivais, Pablo; Cook, Andrea J; Drewnowski, Adam

2014-02-01

Shopping at low-cost supermarkets has been associated with higher obesity rates. This study examined whether attitudes toward healthy eating are independently associated with diet quality among shoppers at low-cost, medium-cost, and high-cost supermarkets. Data on socioeconomic status (SES), attitudes toward healthy eating, and supermarket choice were collected using a telephone survey of a representative sample of adult residents of King County, WA. Dietary intake data were based on a food frequency questionnaire. Thirteen supermarket chains were stratified into three categories: low, medium, and high cost, based on a market basket of 100 commonly eaten foods. Diet-quality measures were energy density, mean adequacy ratio, and total servings of fruits and vegetables. The analytical sample consisted of 963 adults. Multivariable regressions with robust standard error examined relations between diet quality, supermarket type, attitudes, and SES. Shopping at higher-cost supermarkets was associated with higher-quality diets. These associations persisted after adjusting for SES, but were eliminated after taking attitudinal measures into account. Supermarket shoppers with positive attitudes toward healthy eating had equally higher-quality diets, even if they shopped at low-, medium-, or high-cost supermarkets, independent of SES and other covariates. These findings imply that shopping at low-cost supermarkets does not prevent consumers from having high-quality diets, as long as they attach importance to good nutrition. Promoting nutrition-education strategies among supermarkets, particularly those catering to low-income groups, can help to improve diet quality. Copyright © 2014 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Do public nursing home care providers deliver higher quality than private providers? Evidence from Sweden.

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Winblad, Ulrika; Blomqvist, Paula; Karlsson, Andreas

2017-07-14

Swedish nursing home care has undergone a transformation, where the previous virtual public monopoly on providing such services has been replaced by a system of mixed provision. This has led to a rapidly growing share of private actors, the majority of which are large, for-profit firms. In the wake of this development, concerns have been voiced regarding the implications for care quality. In this article, we investigate the relationship between ownership and care quality in nursing homes for the elderly by comparing quality levels between public, for-profit, and non-profit nursing home care providers. We also look at a special category of for-profit providers; private equity companies. The source of data is a national survey conducted by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare in 2011 at 2710 nursing homes. Data from 14 quality indicators are analyzed, including structure and process measures such as staff levels, staff competence, resident participation, and screening for pressure ulcers, nutrition status, and risk of falling. The main statistical method employed is multiple OLS regression analysis. We differentiate in the analysis between structural and processual quality measures. The results indicate that public nursing homes have higher quality than privately operated homes with regard to two structural quality measures: staffing levels and individual accommodation. Privately operated nursing homes, on the other hand, tend to score higher on process-based quality indicators such as medication review and screening for falls and malnutrition. No significant differences were found between different ownership categories of privately operated nursing homes. Ownership does appear to be related to quality outcomes in Swedish nursing home care, but the results are mixed and inconclusive. That staffing levels, which has been regarded as a key quality indicator in previous research, are higher in publicly operated homes than private is consistent with earlier

Assessing Quality and Evaluating Performance in Higher Education: Worlds Apart or Complementary Views?

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Sarrico, Claudia S.; Rosa, Maria J.; Teixeira, Pedro N.; Cardoso, Margarida F.

2010-01-01

This paper reflects on quality assessment and performance evaluation in higher education, namely by analysing the insufficient link between those two aspects. We start by reviewing the current state of the art regarding different processes and mechanisms of quality assessment and performance evaluation and discuss some of the major issues…

Quality Differences of Higher Education and Its Determinants in a Less-Developed Country

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Sarmiento Espinel, Jaime Andrés; Silva Arias, Adriana Carolina; Van Gameren, Edwin

2015-01-01

Two key measures to determine the quality of higher education are the performance of students and the accreditation of a programme's quality. We analyse the difference in the distributions of the student's scores in a standardised test of economics knowledge between accredited and non-accredited undergraduate economics programmes in a…

Does higher quality early child care promote low-income children's math and reading achievement in middle childhood?

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Dearing, Eric; McCartney, Kathleen; Taylor, Beck A

2009-01-01

Higher quality child care during infancy and early childhood (6-54 months of age) was examined as a moderator of associations between family economic status and children's (N = 1,364) math and reading achievement in middle childhood (4.5-11 years of age). Low income was less strongly predictive of underachievement for children who had been in higher quality care than for those who had not. Consistent with a cognitive advantage hypothesis, higher quality care appeared to promote achievement indirectly via early school readiness skills. Family characteristics associated with selection into child care also appeared to promote the achievement of low-income children, but the moderating effect of higher quality care per se remained evident when controlling for selection using covariates and propensity scores.

Electronic symptom reporting between patient and provider for improved health care service quality: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. part 2: methodological quality and effects.

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Johansen, Monika Alise; Berntsen, Gro K Rosvold; Schuster, Tibor; Henriksen, Eva; Horsch, Alexander

2012-10-03

articles showing high risk or unclear risk for both selective reporting and blinding of outcome assessment from the effect assessment. The authors' hypothesis was confirmed for 13 (65%) of the 20 remaining articles. Articles on self-management support were of higher quality, allowing us to assess effects in a larger proportion of studies. All except one self-management interventions were equally effective to or better than the control option. The self-management articles document substantial benefits for patients, and partly also for health professionals and the health care system. Electronic symptom reporting between patients and providers is an exciting area of development for health services. However, the research generally is of low quality. The field would benefit from increased focus on methods for conducting and reporting RCTs. It appears particularly important to improve blinding of outcome assessment and to precisely define primary outcomes to avoid selective reporting. Supporting self-management seems to be especially promising, but consultation support also shows encouraging results.

The Operation Mechanisms of External Quality Assurance Frameworks of Foreign Higher Education and Implications for Graduate Education

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Lin, Mengquan; Chang, Kai; Gong, Le

2016-01-01

The higher education quality evaluation and assurance frameworks and their operating mechanisms of countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and the United States show that higher education systems, traditional culture, and social background all impact quality assurance operating mechanisms. A model analysis of these higher education quality…

Spin in RCTs of anxiety medication with a positive primary outcome : A comparison of concerns expressed by the US FDA and in the published literature

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Beijers, Lian; Jeronimus, Bertus F; Turner, Erick H; de Jonge, Peter; Roest, Annelieke M

2017-01-01

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the presence of spin in papers on positive randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of antidepressant medication for anxiety disorders by comparing concerns expressed in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reviews with those expressed in the published paper.

Is reflexology an effective intervention? A systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

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Ernst, Edzard

2009-09-07

To evaluate the evidence for and against the effectiveness of reflexology for treating any medical condition. Six electronic databases were searched from their inception to February 2009 to identify all relevant randomised controlled trials (RCTs). No language restrictions were applied. RCTs of reflexology delivered by trained reflexologists to patients with specific medical conditions. Condition studied, study design and controls, primary outcome measures, follow-up, and main results were extracted. 18 RCTs met all the inclusion criteria. The studies examined a range of conditions: anovulation, asthma, back pain, dementia, diabetes, cancer, foot oedema in pregnancy, headache, irritable bowel syndrome, menopause, multiple sclerosis, the postoperative state and premenstrual syndrome. There were > 1 studies for asthma, the postoperative state, cancer palliation and multiple sclerosis. Five RCTs yielded positive results. Methodological quality was evaluated using the Jadad scale. The methodological quality was often poor, and sample sizes were generally low. Most higher-quality trials did not generate positive findings. The best evidence available to date does not demonstrate convincingly that reflexology is an effective treatment for any medical condition.

Reinterpreting Higher Education Quality in Response to Policies of Mass Education: The Australian Experience

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Pitman, Tim

2014-01-01

This article explores the relationship between mass education, higher education quality and policy development in Australia in the period 2008-2014, during which access to higher education was significantly increased. Over this time, which included a change of national government, the discursive relationship between mass higher education and…

The impact of cannabis and cannabinoids for medical conditions on health-related quality of life: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldenberg, Matthew; Reid, Mark William; IsHak, Waguih William; Danovitch, Itai

2017-05-01

The use of cannabis or cannabinoids to treat medical conditions and/or alleviate symptoms is increasingly common. However, the impact of this use on patient reported outcomes, such as health-related quality of life (HRQoL), remains unclear. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis, employing guidelines from Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). We categorized studies based on design, targeted disease condition, and type of cannabis or cannabinoid used. We scored studies based on quality and risk of bias. After eliminating some studies because of poor quality or insufficient data, we conducted meta-analyses of remaining studies based on design. Twenty studies met our pre-defined selection criteria. Eleven studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs; 2322 participants); the remaining studies were of cohort and cross-sectional design. Studies of cannabinoids were mostly RCTs of higher design quality than studies of cannabis, which utilized smaller self-selected samples in observational studies. Although we did not uncover a significant association between cannabis and cannabinoids for medical conditions and HRQoL, some patients who used them to treat pain, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bower disorders have reported small improvements in HRQoL, whereas some HIV patients have reported reduced HRQoL. The relationship between HRQoL and the use of cannabis or cannabinoids for medical conditions is inconclusive. Some patient populations report improvements whereas others report reductions in HRQoL. In order to inform users, practitioners, and policymakers more clearly, future studies should adhere to stricter research quality guidelines and more clearly report patient outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Online self-assessment as a quality assurance tool in higher professional education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Prof. Rene Butter

2014-01-01

Theme: Quality Assurance in Higher Education An online tool was developed for (potential) students to assess the congruence between the characteristics of an educational program and student preferences (Butter & Van Raalten, 2010)

Trance, Transparency and Transformation: The Impact of External Quality Monitoring on Higher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Stensaker, Bjorn

2003-01-01

Discusses the impact of external quality monitoring (EQM) on higher education and identifies areas in which changes have taken place as a result of such external initiatives. Suggests that the lack of effects related directly to quality improvement should not be conceived as an EQM design error, but rather as a misconception of how organizational…

The Contribution of Professional Accreditation to Quality Assurance in Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

de Paor, Cathal

2016-01-01

This article examines the extent to which the professional accreditation of professional higher education programmes can complement other quality assurance endeavours being carried out. An analysis of a sample of professional accreditation reports for pharmacy education programmes in Ireland provides insight into the priorities of the regulatory…

The Role of Higher Education in National Quality Infrastructure Policy-Making

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jelena Ruso

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The aim of the paper is to raise awareness of the importance of the policy makers’ knowledge and expertise about quality infrastructure (QI for the successful policy-making. This article, which addresses the role of higher education in Serbian quality infrastructure policy-making, is an analysis of QI related contents of higher education institution curriculum. The target institutions are public faculties from whose official websites the data were collected. Depending on the keywords, the analysis was performed in order to classify the faculties into three categories. After reviewing the 307 subject titles and descriptions of undergraduate courses, the results show that the concepts of QI are widely recognized as an important and popular topic. The analysis of the QI adoption and diffusion indicates that although some of the faculties might be ‘leaders’ in a particular dimension, they still do not necessarily fall into the ‘leader’ category. JEL Classification:I21, I23, H54, L15

Applying Total Quality Management Tools Using QFD at Higher Education Institutions in Gulf Area (Case Study: ALHOSN University

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Adnan Al-Bashir

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Human power’s quality plays the key role in the growth and development of societies where the quality of human powers can be enriched with the high quality education provided by the higher education institutions. The higher education institutions are hereby an important sector of any society since it defines the overall quality of human lives. This research will investigate the application of Total Quality Management (TQM tools at the higher education institutions; specifically at ALHOSN University. In this study five tools were implemented at ALHOSN University’s engineering college including: Quality Function Deployment, Affinity Diagrams, Tree Diagrams, Pareto Charts, and Fishbone Diagrams. The research will reveal that the implementation of TQM tools has a great benefit for higher education institutions where they have uncovered many area of potential improvement as well as the main causes of some of the problems the Faculty of Engineering is facing. Also, it will show that the implementation of TQM tools on higher education institution systems will enhance the performance of such institutions.

Specific Remedy for Specific Problem: Measuring Service Quality in South African Higher Education

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de Jager, Johan; Gbadamosi, Gbolahan

2010-01-01

This study commences a process of developing a scale for the measurement of service quality in higher education in South Africa and also examines the relationship between the measures of service quality on the one hand and some other related variables such as intention to leave the university, trust in management of the university and the overall…

Balanced Scorecard in Higher Education Institutions: Congruence and Roles to Quality Assurance Practices

Science.gov (United States)

Reda, Nigusse W.

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to highlight the congruence and roles of the balanced scorecard in the quality assurance practices in higher education institutions, and second, to propose a balanced scorecard model for higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach: A descriptive literature review was used to…

Chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer in the elderly population

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fábio Nasser Santos

= 1437; 11 RCTs; low-quality evidence; thrombocytopenia: RR 3.59, 95% CI 2.22 to 5.82; participants = 1260; nine RCTs; low-quality evidence; fatigue: RR 1.56, 95% CI 1.02 to 2.38; participants = 1150; seven RCTs; emesis: RR 3.64, 95% CI 1.82 to 7.29; participants = 1193; eight RCTs; and peripheral neuropathy: RR 7.02, 95% CI 2.42 to 20.41; participants = 776; five RCTs; low-quality evidence. Only five RCTs assessed QoL; however, we were unable to perform a meta-analysis because of the paucity of available data. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: In people over the age of 70 with advanced NSCLC who do not have significant co-morbidities, increased survival with platinum combination therapy needs to be balanced against higher risk of major adverse events when compared with non-platinum therapy. For people who are not suitable candidates for platinum treatment, we have found low-quality evidence suggesting that non-platinum combination and single-agent therapy regimens have similar effects on survival. We are uncertain as to the comparability of their adverse event profiles. Additional evidence on quality of life gathered from additional studies is needed to help inform decision making

Higher prices, higher quality? Evidence from German nursing homes

OpenAIRE

Herr, Annika; Hottenrott, Hanna

2016-01-01

Objectives: This study investigates the relationship between prices and quality of 7,400 German nursing homes controlling for income, nursing home density, demographics, labour market characteristics, and infrastructure at the regional level. Method: We use a cross section of public quality reports for all German nursing homes, which had been evaluated between 2010 and 2013 by external institutions. Our analysis is based on multivariate regressions in a two stage least squares framework, wher...

The use of maca (Lepidium meyenii) to improve semen quality: A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Myeong Soo; Lee, Hye Won; You, Sooseong; Ha, Ki-Tae

2016-10-01

The aim of this review was to assess the evidence for the effectiveness of maca (Lepidium meyenii) in improving semen quality. We searched 11 databases from their inception to March 2016 and included all clinical trials on the improvement of semen quality parameters in infertile and healthy men, regardless of the study design or the type of maca. The risk of bias for each study was assessed using the Cochrane criteria. The selection of studies, data extraction, and validation were performed independently by the first two authors. Discrepancies were resolved through discussion by the same two authors. Five studies - 3 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and 2 uncontrolled observational studies (UOSs) - met all of the inclusion criteria. One RCT found favorable effects of maca on sperm mobility in infertile men. The two other RCTs showed positive effects of maca on several semen quality parameters in healthy men. The two UOSs also suggested favorable effects of maca on semen quality. The results of our systematic review provide suggestive evidence for the effectiveness of maca in improving semen quality. However, the total number of trials, the total sample size, and the risk of bias of the included studies prevent the drawing firm conclusions. More rigorous studies are warranted. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Student as Customer: The Discourse of "Quality" in Higher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldwin, Gabrielle

1994-01-01

It is argued that bringing the cultures of business, industry and advertising into higher education, in the form of quality assurance systems, goes beyond a healthy challenge to be destructive of many traditional values of university culture. Imposition, and acceptance, of the language of management reflects this phenomenon. (MSE)

Do Men Produce Higher Quality Ejaculates When Primed With Thoughts of Partner Infidelity?

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Michael N; Barbaro, Nicole; Holub, Andrew M; Holden, Christopher J; Mogilski, Justin K; Lopes, Guilherme S; Nicolas, Sylis C A; Sela, Yael; Shackelford, Todd K; Zeigler-Hill, Virgil; Welling, Lisa L M

2018-01-01

Sperm competition theory can be used to generate the hypothesis that men alter the quality of their ejaculates as a function of sperm competition risk. Using a repeated measures experimental design, we investigated whether men produce a higher quality ejaculate when primed with cues to sperm competition (i.e., imagined partner infidelity) relative to a control prime. Men ( n = 45) submitted two masturbatory ejaculates-one ejaculate sample for each condition (i.e., sperm competition and control conditions). Ejaculates were assessed on 17 clinical parameters. The results did not support the hypothesis: Men did not produce higher quality ejaculates in the sperm competition condition relative to the control condition. Despite the null results of the current research, there is evidence for psychological and physiological adaptations to sperm competition in humans. We discuss methodological limitations that may have produced the null results and present methodological suggestions for research on human sperm competition.

Systematic review: quality of trials on the symptomatic effects of the low FODMAP diet for irritable bowel syndrome

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Krogsgaard, L. R.; Lyngesen, M.; Bytzer, P.

2017-01-01

Background The low Fermentable Oligo-, Di- Monosaccharides, and Polyoles (FODMAP) diet is a new treatment option for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Experts refer to the diet as supported by high level of evidence, but an evaluation of the quality of trials is lacking. Aim To provide a systematic...... review of the quality of trials on the symptomatic effects of the low FODMAP diet for IBS. Methods Pubmed and EMBASE were searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) reporting effect of the low FODMAP diet on IBS symptoms. The quality of trials was evaluated by estimating risk of bias and assessing...... was instruction by a dietician and a variety of control interventions were used, all with limited established efficacy. Domains with a high risk of bias were identified for all the trials. High risk of bias dominated domains regarding blinding, with only one trial double-blinded. Conclusions The RCTs on the low...

Quality Management in the Higher Education of the Republic of Moldova as a Framework for University Performance

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Prisacaru Veronica

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This investigation is focused on two objectives: 1 explaining the relationship between quality management and performance management in higher education; 2 evaluating the existing quality management systems in the higher education institutions of the Republic of Moldova. In order to accomplish the first objective, a comparative theoretical analysis of the quality management and performance management was carried out in terms of common aspects and distinctive peculiarities. Consequently, it was reasoned that the performance management system of a higher education institution is created and functions on the basis of the quality management system by extending the area of the quality objectives to the level at which they will ensure performance or, in other terms, by moving towards excellence. In order to achieve the second objective, an opinion survey for the teaching and managerial staff from 6 universities was carried out. As a consequence of processing the obtained results, there were identified problems related to the functioning of the quality management systems. The investigation resulted in the formulation of a set of recommendations for the higher education institutions of the Republic of Moldova in order to increase the efficiency of the quality management systems functioning and thus to ensure an efficient management.

Interventions to improve water quality for preventing diarrhoea.

Science.gov (United States)

Clasen, Thomas F; Alexander, Kelly T; Sinclair, David; Boisson, Sophie; Peletz, Rachel; Chang, Howard H; Majorin, Fiona; Cairncross, Sandy

2015-10-20

Diarrhoea is a major cause of death and disease, especially among young children in low-income countries. In these settings, many infectious agents associated with diarrhoea are spread through water contaminated with faeces.In remote and low-income settings, source-based water quality improvement includes providing protected groundwater (springs, wells, and bore holes), or harvested rainwater as an alternative to surface sources (rivers and lakes). Point-of-use water quality improvement interventions include boiling, chlorination, flocculation, filtration, or solar disinfection, mainly conducted at home. To assess the effectiveness of interventions to improve water quality for preventing diarrhoea. We searched the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group Specialized Register (11 November 2014), CENTRAL (the Cochrane Library, 7 November 2014), MEDLINE (1966 to 10 November 2014), EMBASE (1974 to 10 November 2014), and LILACS (1982 to 7 November 2014). We also handsearched relevant conference proceedings, contacted researchers and organizations working in the field, and checked references from identified studies through 11 November 2014. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-RCTs, and controlled before-and-after studies (CBA) comparing interventions aimed at improving the microbiological quality of drinking water with no intervention in children and adults. Two review authors independently assessed trial quality and extracted data. We used meta-analyses to estimate pooled measures of effect, where appropriate, and investigated potential sources of heterogeneity using subgroup analyses. We assessed the quality of evidence using the GRADE approach. Forty-five cluster-RCTs, two quasi-RCTs, and eight CBA studies, including over 84,000 participants, met the inclusion criteria. Most included studies were conducted in low- or middle-income countries (LMICs) (50 studies) with unimproved water sources (30 studies) and unimproved or unclear sanitation (34 studies). The primary

Quality Assurance and the Shift Towards Private Governance in Higher Education

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hartmann, Eva

2017-01-01

This contribution focuses on quality assurance (QA) agencies in the sphere of higher education. It develops a theoretical framework that interrelates systems theory with Gramsci's theory of hegemony with a view to situating this new control of universities in the broader context of a further...... differentiation of society and emerging heterarchical modes of governance. A closer study of the emerging European market of QA agencies highlights the European dimension of this differentiation and the role of the market in advancing a variable geometry in the context of the European Higher Education Area....

Total Quality Management in Higher Education: Clearing the Hurdles. A Survey on Strategies for Implementing Quality Management Practices in Higher Education. A GOAL/QPC Application Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Seymour, Daniel

Based on a survey of Quality Management (QM) practitioners at 21 colleges, this study presents the 10 most difficult implementation hurdles to QM in higher education and a set of hurdle-clearing strategies. The hurdles are: (1) lack of time to implement QM; (2) perception that QM is something for janitorial and housing staffs but not applicable to…

Quality Assurance Strategies of Higher Education in Iraq and Kurdistan: A Case Study

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Kaghed, Nabeel; Dezaye, Ahmed

2009-01-01

This paper reports on two different strategies that have been implemented in Iraq to improve quality assurance in the higher education sector in Iraq. One strategy has been developed by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Baghdad. It involved conducting a pilot study at the University of Babylon. This pilot included…

Specific psychological variables predict quality of diet in women of lower, but not higher, educational attainment.

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Lawrence, Wendy; Schlotz, Wolff; Crozier, Sarah; Skinner, Timothy C; Haslam, Cheryl; Robinson, Sian; Inskip, Hazel; Cooper, Cyrus; Barker, Mary

2011-02-01

Our previous work found that perceived control over life was a significant predictor of the quality of diet of women of lower educational attainment. In this paper, we explore the influence on quality of diet of a range of psychological and social factors identified during focus group discussions, and specify the way this differs in women of lower and higher educational attainment. We assessed educational attainment, quality of diet, and psycho-social factors in 378 women attending Sure Start Children's Centres and baby clinics in Southampton, UK. Multiple-group path analysis showed that in women of lower educational attainment, the effect of general self-efficacy on quality of diet was mediated through perceptions of control and through food involvement, but that there were also direct effects of social support for healthy eating and having positive outcome expectancies. There was no effect of self-efficacy, perceived control or outcome expectancies on the quality of diet of women of higher educational attainment, though having more social support and food involvement were associated with improved quality of diet in these women. Our analysis confirms our hypothesis that control-related factors are more important in determining dietary quality in women of lower educational attainment than in women of higher educational attainment. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH: APPLICATION OF A MODIFIED SERVQUAL MODEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Md. Mamun-ur-Rashid

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Progressive importance, swelling investment, and mounting national and global competition necessitate evaluation of the service quality of higher education. Quantifiable indicators such as student teacher ratio, student number, women participation, establishing new departments, and increase in the number of universities are no longer enough unless the student’s stand point is considered. This research probed the service quality of higher education in a public university in southern Bangladesh utilizing modified SERVQUAL gap model. The t-test results suggest that there is a significant service gap in all the selected service dimensions such as learning, teaching, recognition, assessment system, internet and library facilities, campus life, and non-academic administration. The results also mirror that little more than half (54.1% students are satisfied with the service quality of the selected university and almost similar proportion (52.1 % of the students have future interest in studying in the same university. Regression analysis reveals that learning and recognition are two important determinants of client’s overall satisfaction with the service of selected university. Importance Performance Analysis (IPA advocates that the university should take immediate step in improving internet and library facilities, campus life, and non-academic administration. Factor analysis output confirms that slight modification of the proposed seven set model into six set factors can be employed by the management as off-the-rack service quality measurement tool.

Building Collegiate E-Loyalty: The Role of Perceived Value in the Quality-Loyalty Linkage in Online Higher Education

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Kilburn, Brandon; Kilburn, Ashley; Davis, Dexter

2016-01-01

E-service quality of online higher education reflects the student's perception of quality of online exchanges across four dimensions: fulfillment, efficiency, system availability and privacy. This study links e-service quality to intentions to remain loyal as mediated by perceived value in an online higher education environment. AMOS is used to…

Governance of Higher Education--The Role of Proximity in Teaching Quality

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Macheridis, Nikos; Paulsson, Alexander

2016-01-01

The starting point of this article is the relation between teaching quality and expectations by different governance actors in higher education. Managing a department in a public university is, to a large extent, about the coordination of governance actors, involving government authorities as well as the university and the faculty. Internally, the…

Defining the Quality of Higher Education around Ethics and Moral Values

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Prisacariu, Anca; Shah, Mahsood

2016-01-01

The context of higher education across the world currently presents evidence of university failures. These failures are evident in areas such as governance, financial and risk management, conduct of senior leaders and quality assurance issues surrounding international education. Having this in mind, the present paper argues the need to add a new…

Benchmarks and Quality Assurance for Online Course Development in Higher Education

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Wang, Hong

2008-01-01

As online education has entered the main stream of the U.S. higher education, quality assurance in online course development has become a critical topic in distance education. This short article summarizes the major benchmarks related to online course development, listing and comparing the benchmarks of the National Education Association (NEA),…

Assessing the Students' Evaluations of Educational Quality (SEEQ) Questionnaire in Greek Higher Education

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Grammatikopoulos, Vasilis; Linardakis, M.; Gregoriadis, A.; Oikonomidis, V.

2015-01-01

The aim of the current study was to provide a valid and reliable instrument for the evaluation of the teaching effectiveness in the Greek higher education system. Other objectives of the study were (a) the examination of the dimensionality and the higher-order structure of the Greek version of Students' Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ)…

The Work-Related Quality of Life Scale for Higher Education Employees

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Edwards, Julian A.; Van Laar, Darren; Easton, Simon; Kinman, Gail

2009-01-01

Previous research suggests that higher education employees experience comparatively high levels of job stress. A range of instruments, both generic and job-specific, has been used to measure stressors and strains in this occupational context. The Work-related Quality of Life (WRQoL) scale is a measure designed to capture perceptions of the working…

Student Perceptions of Service Quality in a Multi-Campus Higher Education System in Spain

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Gallifa, Josep; Batalle, Pere

2010-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to present an in-depth case study with student perceptions of service quality, discussing the relevance of these perceptions for the important issue of quality improvement in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents institutional research carried out in a multi-campus system in Spain made up of…

Acceptability of the Conceptions of Higher Education Quality to First Year Students of the Study Field of Pedagogy

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Žibeniene, Gintaute; Savickiene, Izabela

2014-01-01

The article presents which conceptions of higher education quality are most acceptable to first-year students of the study field of pedagogy. It is significant to analyse students' opinions as more than 10 years ago the EU member states agreed that higher education institutions bear responsibility for the quality of higher education. Being members…

Quality Circles in Higher Education: Quality, Satisfaction, and Climate.

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Kay, Carol; Healy, Margaret

The effect of quality circles at Iowa State University on absenteeism, performance evaluation, perceptions of the organization climate, job satisfaction, and perceived opportunities for professional and personal growth was measured in this study. The process of quality circles is designed to promote job fulfillment and organizational productivity…

Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Which Pasts to Build On, What Futures to Contemplate?

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Singh, Mala

2010-01-01

The paper is a reflection on the pasts and futures of quality assurance in higher education. It poses questions about the correlation between the geographical and political spread of quality assurance on the one hand and the resulting educational benefits on the other; about the divergences between critics and practitioners on the likely impacts…

"How to Strike the Right Balance between Quality Assurance and Quality Control in the Perceptions of Individual Lecturers": A Comparison of UK and Dutch Higher Education Institutions

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Teelken, Christine; Lomas, Laurie

2009-01-01

This paper focuses on the way lecturers observe, feel restrained by and cope with quality management systems that have been implemented in the higher education systems of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. As two sides of the same coin, quality enhancement and quality control are of increased significance in European Higher Education…

Specific psychological variables predict quality of diet in women of lower, but not higher, educational attainment

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lawrence, Wendy; Schlotz, Wolff; Crozier, Sarah

2011-01-01

Our previous work found that perceived control over life was a significant predictor of the quality of diet of women of lower educational attainment. In this paper, we explore the influence on quality of diet of a range of psychological and social factors identified during focus group discussions......, and specify the way this differs in women of lower and higher educational attainment. We assessed educational attainment, quality of diet, and psycho-social factors in 378 women attending Sure Start Children's Centres and baby clinics in Southampton, UK. Multiple-group path analysis showed that in women...... of self-efficacy, perceived control or outcome expectancies on the quality of diet of women of higher educational attainment, though having more social support and food involvement were associated with improved quality of diet in these women. Our analysis confirms our hypothesis that control...

Efficacy and safety of over-the-counter whitening strips as compared to home-whitening with 10 % carbamide peroxide gel--systematic review of RCTs and metanalysis.

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Serraglio, Carla Regina; Zanella, Luana; Dalla-Vecchia, Karine Battestin; Rodrigues-Junior, Sinval Adalberto

2016-01-01

The study aims to compare the efficacy and safety of over-the-counter whitestrips with the American Dental Association (ADA)-recommended home-whitening using the 10 % carbamide peroxide gel. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the clinical efficacy and safety of the whitestrips with the 10 % carbamide peroxide (10 % CP) gel applied on tray for tooth whitening in adults were searched at PubMed and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases and selected up to October 2014. Efficacy of the whitening techniques was assessed through ∆E, ∆L, and ∆b parameters, while side effects were analyzed as dichotomous variables. Data was extracted independently by two reviewers. Metanalysis was performed using random- and fixed-effect models (RevMan 5.3). Eight studies were included in the metanalysis. The metanalysis revealed no significant difference between the intervention groups for tooth-whitening efficacy measured as ΔE (mean difference [MD]-0.53; 95 % CI [-1.72;0.66]; Z = 0.88; p = 0.38) and ΔL (MD-0.22; 95 % CI [-0.81;0.36]; z = 0.75; p = 0.45); reduction of yellowing was higher with the whitestrips (MD-0.47; 95 % CI [-0.89; -0.06]; Z = 2.25; p = 0.02). Tooth sensitivity (risk ratio [RR] 1.17; 95 % CI [0.81-1.69]; Z = 0.81; p = 0.42) and gingival sensitivity (RR 0.76; 95 % CI [0.53-1.10]; Z = 1.44; p = 0.15) were similar, regardless of the whitening method used. The observed gingival irritation was higher when the 10 % CP gel was applied on tray (RR 0.43; 95 % CI [0.20-0.93]; Z = 2.14; p = 0.03). The quality of evidence generated was rated very low for all outcomes. There is no sound evidence to support the use of the whitening strips in detriment of the ADA-recommended technique based on the 10 % carbamide peroxide gel applied on tray. To the moment, there is no sound evidence in dental literature to suggest that the ADA-recommended whitening technique based on 10 % carbamide peroxide gel could be substituted by the whitening strips. The

Measuring Teaching Quality in Higher Education: Assessing Selection Bias in Course Evaluations

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Goos, Maarten; Salomons, Anna

2017-01-01

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are widely used to measure teaching quality in higher education and compare it across different courses, teachers, departments and institutions. Indeed, SETs are of increasing importance for teacher promotion decisions, student course selection, as well as for auditing practices demonstrating institutional…

The Status of Quality Assurance and Accreditation Systems within Higher Education Institutions in the Republic of Yemen

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Anaam, Mahyoub Ali; Alhammadi, Abdullah Othman; Kwairan, Abdulwahab Awadh

2009-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the status of quality assurance and accreditation systems within higher education institutions in Yemen. The paper initially describes the stages of development and changes that have occurred in the field of quality and accreditation in Yemeni higher education. The paper shows that no formal…

[Methodological quality evaluation of randomized controlled trials for traditional Chinese medicines for treatment of sub-health].

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Zhao, Jun; Liao, Xing; Zhao, Hui; Li, Zhi-Geng; Wang, Nan-Yue; Wang, Li-Min

2016-11-01

To evaluate the methodological quality of the randomized controlled trials(RCTs) for traditional Chinese medicines for treatment of sub-health, in order to provide a scientific basis for the improvement of clinical trials and systematic review. Such databases as CNKI, CBM, VIP, Wanfang, EMbase, Medline, Clinical Trials, Web of Science and Cochrane Library were searched for RCTS for traditional Chinese medicines for treatment of sub-health between the time of establishment and February 29, 2016. Cochrane Handbook 5.1 was used to screen literatures and extract data, and CONSORT statement and CONSORT for traditional Chinese medicine statement were adopted as the basis for quality evaluation. Among the 72 RCTs included in this study, 67 (93.05%) trials described the inter-group baseline data comparability, 39(54.17%) trials described the unified diagnostic criteria, 28(38.89%) trials described the unified standards of efficacy, 4 (5.55%) trials mentioned the multi-center study, 19(26.38%) trials disclosed the random distribution method, 6(8.33%) trials used the random distribution concealment, 15(20.83%) trials adopted the method of blindness, 3(4.17%) study reported the sample size estimation in details, 5 (6.94%) trials showed a sample size of more than two hundred, 19(26.38%) trials reported the number of withdrawal, defluxion cases and those lost to follow-up, but only 2 trials adopted the ITT analysis,10(13.89%) trials reported the follow-up results, none of the trial reported the test registration and the test protocol, 48(66.7%) trials reported all of the indicators of expected outcomes, 26(36.11%) trials reported the adverse reactions and adverse events, and 4(5.56%) trials reported patient compliance. The overall quality of these randomized controlled trials for traditional Chinese medicines for treatment of sub-health is low, with methodological defects in different degrees. Therefore, it is still necessary to emphasize the correct application of principles

The reporting quality of randomized controlled trials in orthodontics.

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Lempesi, Evangelia; Koletsi, Despina; Fleming, Padhraig S; Pandis, Nikolaos

2014-06-01

Accurate trial reporting facilitates evaluation and better use of study results. The objective of this article is to investigate the quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in leading orthodontic journals, and to explore potential predictors of improved reporting. The 50 most recent issues of 4 leading orthodontic journals until November 2013 were electronically searched. Reporting quality assessment was conducted using the modified CONSORT statement checklist. The relationship between potential predictors and the modified CONSORT score was assessed using linear regression modeling. 128 RCTs were identified with a mean modified CONSORT score of 68.97% (SD = 11.09). The Journal of Orthodontics (JO) ranked first in terms of completeness of reporting (modified CONSORT score 76.21%, SD = 10.1), followed by American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics (AJODO) (73.05%, SD = 10.1). Journal of publication (AJODO: β = 10.08, 95% CI: 5.78, 14.38; JO: β = 16.82, 95% CI: 11.70, 21.94; EJO: β = 7.21, 95% CI: 2.69, 11.72 compared to Angle), year of publication (β = 0.98, 95% CI: 0.28, 1.67 for each additional year), region of authorship (Europe: β = 5.19, 95% CI: 1.30, 9.09 compared to Asia/other), statistical significance (significant: β = 3.10, 95% CI: 0.11, 6.10 compared to non-significant) and methodologist involvement (involvement: β = 5.60, 95% CI: 1.66, 9.54 compared to non-involvement) were all significant predictors of improved modified CONSORT scores in the multivariable model. Additionally, median overall Jadad score was 2 (IQR = 2) across journals, with JO (median = 3, IQR = 1) and AJODO (median = 3, IQR = 2) presenting the highest score values. The reporting quality of RCTs published in leading orthodontic journals is considered suboptimal in various CONSORT areas. This may have a bearing in trial result interpretation and use in clinical decision making and evidence- based orthodontic treatment interventions. Copyright �

Quality Teaching in a Managerial Setting: Higher Education Challenges in Australia

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Therese Demediuk

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Australian universities face increased challenges in a global higher education marketplace. They have responded to this competitive environment by introducing greater efficiency and accountability measures. One key measure is the quality of teaching and in particular, the delivery of student-centred teaching. However, the reforms have changed the working lives of academic teachers who now have greater reporting and administrative responsibilities with less sense of collegiality in the sector. In these circumstances, it is not clear that teaching staff will share the same perceptions of quality teaching as their institutions expect. This paper examines the utility of role theory and learning organization theory as part of a project which will examine the ways in which implicit knowledge can be made explicit and shared in the organization as part of academic teachers’ roles. The paper hypothesizes that when academics share their perceptions of good teaching, universities will benefit from a coherent set of quality teaching indicators which are aligned with their organizational cultures.

External Quality Assurance in Higher Education: How Can It Address Corruption and Other Malpractices?

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Martin, Michaela

2016-01-01

Corruption and malpractices in higher education are today a major concern in nearly all higher education systems worldwide. It is a multifaceted phenomenon and has become particularly visible in the academic domain. This paper represents an exploration of the possible role that quality assurance can play in addressing corruption and malpractices.…

Quality Assurance and Its Impact from Higher Education Institutions' Perspectives: Methodological Approaches, Experiences and Expectations

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Bejan, Stelian Andrei; Janatuinen, Tero; Jurvelin, Jouni; Klöpping, Susanne; Malinen, Heikki; Minke, Bernhard; Vacareanu, Radu

2015-01-01

This paper reports on methodological approaches, experiences and expectations referring to impact analysis of quality assurance from the perspective of three higher education institutions (students, teaching staff, quality managers) from Germany, Finland and Romania. The presentations of the three sample institutions focus on discussing the core…

Nominal Group Technique and its Applications in Managing Quality in Higher Education

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Rafikul Islam

2011-09-01

Full Text Available Quality management is an important aspect in all kinds of businesses – manufacturing or service. Idea generation plays a pivotal role in managing quality in organizations. It is thenew and innovative ideas which can help corporations to survive in the turbulent business environment. Research in group dynamics has shown that more ideas are generated by individuals working alone but in a group environment than the individuals engaged in a formal group discussion. In Nominal Group Technique (NGT, individuals work alone but in a group setting. This paper shows how NGT can be applied to generate large number of ideas to solve quality related problems specifically in Malaysian higher education setting. The paper also discusses the details of NGT working procedure andexplores the areas of its further applications.

Measuring Service Quality in Higher Education: Development of a Hierarchical Model (HESQUAL)

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Teeroovengadum, Viraiyan; Kamalanabhan, T. J.; Seebaluck, Ashley Keshwar

2016-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to develop and empirically test a hierarchical model for measuring service quality in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The first phase of the study consisted of qualitative research methods and a comprehensive literature review, which allowed the development of a conceptual model comprising 53 service quality…

The Incorporation of Quality Attributes into Online Course Design in Higher Education

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Lenert, Kathleen Anne; Diane P. Janes

2017-01-01

A survey was designed incorporating questions on 28 attributes (compiled through a literature review) and considered to be quality features in online academic courses in higher education. This study sought to investigate the ongoing practice of instructional designers and instructors in the United States with respect to their incorporation of…

Relationship Quality in Higher Education Marketing: The Role of Social Media Engagement

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Clark, Melissa; Fine, Monica B.; Scheuer, Cara-Lynn

2017-01-01

The landscape in consumer marketing is changing due to the rise in popularity of social media. This shift has also affected how higher education institutions build relationships with their stakeholders. This study explores how social media engagement impacts relationship quality between the university and one of its key stakeholder groups,…

Quality Administration and Management in Higher Education in Nigeria: Implications for Human Resource Development

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Akinyemi, Gbenga M.; Abiddin, Norhasni Zainal

2013-01-01

The dynamic changes in today's world have made countries of the world masters of their own destinies. In this light, it has become noted today that "the affluence or penury of nations depends largely on the quality of higher education". This is informed by the fact that higher education systems of a nation is the "machinery of…

The UNIQUe Label: Supporting a Culture of Innovation and Quality in Higher Education

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Boonen, Annemie; Bijnens, Helena

European higher education institutions will need significant reforms, in order to guarantee their leading role in a globalized knowledge economy. These reforms can be enhanced by improving the way in which traditional universities integrate new technologies both in their educational activities and throughout their strategic and operational processes. The UNIQUe institutional accreditation scheme, analyzed and described in this chapter, intends to support this process of integrating the use of new technologies in higher education. With its specific open approach to quality in e-Learning, UNIQUe emphasizes innovation and creativity in a process that includes self-assessment and constructive dialog with peers and stakeholders involved. UNIQUe intends to use the institutional quality label as a catalyst for continuous improvement and change while setting up collaborative bench learning processes among universities for the adoption and integration of e-Learning.

Quality of methodological reporting of randomized clinical trials of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (sglt2 inhibitors

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Hadeel Alfahmi

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2 inhibitors are a new class of medicines approved recently for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. To improve the quality of randomized clinical trial (RCT reports, the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT statement for methodological features was created. For achieving our objective in this study, we assessed the quality of methodological reporting of RCTs of SGLT2 inhibitors according to the 2010 CONSORT statement. We reviewed and analyzed the methodology of SGLT2 inhibitors RCTs that were approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA. Of the 27 trials, participants, eligibility criteria, and additional analyses were reported in 100% of the trials. In addition, trial design, interventions, and statistical methods were reported in 96.3% of the trials. Outcomes were reported in 93.6% of the trials. Settings were reported in 85.2% of the trials. Blinding and sample size were reported in 66.7 and 59.3% of the trials, respectively. Sequence allocation and the type of randomization were reported in 63 and 74.1% of the trials, respectively. Besides those, a few methodological items were inadequate in the trials. Allocation concealment was inadequate in most of the trials. It was reported only in 11.1% of the trials. The majority of RCTs have high percentage adherence for more than half of the methodological items of the 2010 CONSORT statement.

Quality Procedures in the European Higher Education Area and Beyond--Visions for the Future: Third ENQA Survey. ENQA Occasional Papers 18

Science.gov (United States)

Grifoll, Josep; Hopbach, Achim; Kekalainen, Helka; Lugano, Nathalie; Rozsnyai, Christina; Shopov, Todor

2012-01-01

Higher education reforms over the last decade, resulting in the establishment of the European Higher Education Area, with new social demands and expectations, have greatly impacted quality assurance in higher education. As a follow-up activity to two previous surveys on external quality procedures, the European Association for Quality Assurance in…

Recent randomized controlled trials in otolaryngology.

Science.gov (United States)

Banglawala, Sarfaraz M; Lawrence, Lauren A; Franko-Tobin, Emily; Soler, Zachary M; Schlosser, Rodney J; Ioannidis, John

2015-03-01

To assess recent trends in the prevalence and quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in 4 otolaryngology journals. Methodology and reporting analysis. Randomized controlled trials in 4 otolaryngology journals. All RCTs published from 2011 to 2013 in 4 major otolaryngology journals were examined for characteristics of study design, quality of design and reporting, and funding. Of 5279 articles published in 4 leading otolaryngology journals from 2011 to 2013, 189 (3.3%) were RCTs. The majority of RCTs were clinical studies (86%), with the largest proportion consisting of sinonasal topics (31%). Most interventions were medical (46%), followed by surgical (38%) and mixed (16%). In terms of quality, randomization method was reported in 54% of RCTs, blinding in 33%, and adverse events in 65%. Intention-to-treat analysis was used in 32%; P values were reported in 87% and confidence intervals in 10%. Research funding was most often absent or not reported (55%), followed by not-for-profit (25%). Based on review of 4 otolaryngology journals, RCTs are still a small proportion of all published studies in the field of otolaryngology. There seem to be trends toward improvement in quality of design and reporting of RCTs, although many quality features remain suboptimal. Practitioners both designing and interpreting RCTs should critically evaluate RCTs for quality. © American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Foundation 2014.

Zen and the Art of Higher Education Maintenance: Bridging Classic and Romantic Notions of Quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Shields, Patricia M.

Uses Robert Pirsig's ideas in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" to explore two ways of viewing quality in higher education: the romantic and the classic. Analyzes historical and contemporary literature on quality using insights of Alfred Whitehead, Pirsig, and John Dewey, urging a vision that is honest and that incorporates…

Total Quality Management in Higher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Sherr, Lawrence A.; Lozier, G. Gredgory

1991-01-01

Total Quality Management, based on theories of W. Edward Deming and others, is a style of management using continuous process improvement characterized by mission and customer focus, a systematic approach to operations, vigorous development of human resources, long-term thinking, and a commitment to ensuring quality. The values espoused by this…

Between Efficiency and Transformation: The Opinion of Deans on the Meaning of Quality in Higher Education

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Olaskoaga-Larrauri, Jon; Barrenetxea-Ayesta, Miren; Cardona-Rodríguez, Antonio; Mijangos-Del Campo, Juan José; Barandiaran-Galdós, Marta

2016-01-01

The literature on quality management at higher education institutions has for some time been working on the basis of two issues: a) the diversity of ideas as to what "quality" means, which makes it harder to apply the principles of quality management in this context; and b) the idea that this diversity is in some way a response to the…

Playing language games: higher education quality dynamics in Dutch national policies since 1985

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Weenink, Kasja; Aarts, Noelle; Jacobs, Sandra

2017-01-01

Higher education quality is a vague, ambiguous, multiple, and essentially contested concept. Quality’s contested character involves endless disputes about its proper use which makes it problematic to handle in governmental policies. Wittgenstein’s notion of language games is used to understand how,

A Phenomenographic Study of Students' Conceptions of Quality in Learning in Higher Education in Rwanda

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Mbabazi Bamwesiga, Penelope; Fejes, Andreas; Dahlgren, Lars-Owe

2013-01-01

The aim of this study is to understand the different ways that university students conceptualise quality in learning by drawing on a phenomenographic approach. A total of 20 students in higher education in Rwanda were interviewed and analysis of the interviews generated an outcome space of conceptions of quality in learning as transformation,…

Standards for reporting randomized controlled trials in neurosurgery.

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Kiehna, Erin N; Starke, Robert M; Pouratian, Nader; Dumont, Aaron S

2011-02-01

The Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials (CONSORT) criteria were published in 1996 to standardize the reporting and improve the quality of clinical trials. Despite having been endorsed by major medical journals and shown to improve the quality of reported trials, neurosurgical journals have yet to formally adopt these reporting criteria. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality and reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in neurosurgery and the factors that may affect the quality of reported trials. The authors evaluated all neurosurgical RCTs published in 2006 and 2007 in the principal neurosurgical journals (Journal of Neurosurgery; Neurosurgery; Surgical Neurology; Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry; and Acta Neurochirurgica) and in 3 leading general medical journals (Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine). Randomized controlled trials that addressed operative decision making or the treatment of neurosurgical patients were included in this analysis. The RCT quality was evaluated using the Jadad score and the CONSORT checklist. In 2006 and 2007, 27 RCTs relevant to intracranial neurosurgery were reported. Of these trials, only 59% had a Jadad score ≥ 3. The 3 major medical journals all endorsed the CONSORT guidelines, while none of the neurosurgical journals have adopted these guidelines. Randomized controlled trials published in the 3 major medical journals had a significantly higher mean CONSORT score (mean 41, range 39-44) compared with those published in neurosurgical journals (mean 26.4, range 17-38; p journals (mean 3.42, range 2-5) than neurosurgical journals (mean 2.45, range 1-5; p = 0.05). Despite the growing volume of RCTs in neurosurgery, the quality of reporting of these trials remains suboptimal, especially in the neurosurgical journals. Improved awareness of the CONSORT guidelines by journal editors, reviewers, and authors of these papers could

Productivity as an Indication of Quality in Higher Education: The Views of Employed Graduates in Greece

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Eliophotou Menon, Maria

2016-01-01

The paper investigates the views of Greek university graduates on the link between higher education and productivity in order to determine the extent to which productivity can be considered to be an indication of quality in higher education. It also investigates the perceived effect of the type and content of higher education on productivity;…

A Narrative Review of High-Quality Literature on the Effects of Resident Duty Hours Reforms.

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Lin, Henry; Lin, Emery; Auditore, Stephanie; Fanning, Jon

2016-01-01

To summarize current high-quality studies evaluating the effect and efficacy of resident duty hours reforms (DHRs) on patient safety and resident education and well-being. The authors searched PubMed and Medline in August 2012 and again in May 2013 for literature (1987-2013) about the effects of DHRs. They assessed the quality of articles using the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) scoring system. They considered randomized controlled trials (RCTs), partial RCTs, and all studies with a MERSQI score ≥ 14 to be "high-quality" methodology studies. A total of 72 high-quality studies met inclusion criteria. Most studies showed no change or slight improvement in mortality and complication rates after DHRs. Resident well-being was generally improved, but there was a perceived negative impact on education (knowledge acquisition, skills, and cognitive performance) following DHRs. Eleven high-quality studies assessed the impact of DHR interventions; all reported a neutral to positive impact. Seven high-quality studies assessed costs associated with DHRs and demonstrated an increase in hospital costs. The results of most studies that allow enough time for DHR interventions to take effect suggest a benefit to patient safety and resident well-being, but the effect on the quality of training remains unknown. Additional methodologically sound studies on the impact of DHRs are necessary. Priorities for future research include approaches to optimizing education and clinical proficiency and studies on the effect of intervention strategies on both education and patient safety. Such studies will provide additional information to help improve duty hours policies.

Nurturing Quality of Higher Education through National Ranking: A Potential Empowerment Model for Developing Countries

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Kusumastuti, Dyah; Idrus, Nirwan

2017-01-01

This paper reviews the recently introduced National Higher Education ranking system in Indonesia in order to evaluate its potential as a sustainable model to improve the quality of higher education in the country. It is a scaffold towards an established world-universities ranking system that may prove formidable for a developing country. This…

A World of Brands: Higher Education and the Emergence of Multinational Quality Franchises

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Blanco Ramírez, Gerardo

2014-01-01

This article explores the concepts of "brand" and "franchise" in the development of international quality assurance. The impact of corporate language and culture on higher education is evident and has been extensively analysed. Recent attention given to branding of universities reflects the ever-growing influence of corporate…

Improvement of quality of reporting in randomised controlled trials to prevent hypotension after spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section

NARCIS (Netherlands)

A. Herdan; R. Roth; D. Grass; M. Klimek (Markus); S. Will; B. Schauf; R. Rossaint; M. Heesen

2011-01-01

textabstractHypotension is a frequent complication of spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section and can threaten the well-being of the unborn child. Numerous randomised controlled trials (RCTs) dealt with measures to prevent hypotension. The aim of this study was to determine the reporting quality of

Quality of Higher Education: Organisational or Educational? A Content Analysis of Chinese University Self-Evaluation Reports

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Zou, Yihuan; Du, Xiangyun; Rasmussen, Palle

2012-01-01

Based on a study of Chinese university self-evaluation reports, this paper argues that higher education institutions are trying to manage the tensions between educational and organisational quality and the increasing and worldwide concerns about quality assurance. After 30 years of dramatic educational reform, China has established a nationwide…

Framing and Enhancing Distributed Leadership in the Quality Management of Online Learning Environments in Higher Education

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Holt, Dale; Palmer, Stuart; Gosper, Maree; Sankey, Michael; Allan, Garry

2014-01-01

This article reports on the findings of senior leadership interviews in a nationally funded project on distributed leadership in the quality management of online learning environments (OLEs) in higher education. Questions were framed around the development of an OLE quality management framework and the situation of the characteristics of…

Intervention randomized controlled trials involving wrist and shoulder arthroscopy: a systematic review

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2014-01-01

Background Although arthroscopy of upper extremity joints was initially a diagnostic tool, it is increasingly used for therapeutic interventions. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the gold standard for assessing treatment efficacy. We aimed to review the literature for intervention RCTs involving wrist and shoulder arthroscopy. Methods We performed a systematic review for RCTs in which at least one arm was an intervention performed through wrist arthroscopy or shoulder arthroscopy. PubMed and Cochrane Library databases were searched up to December 2012. Two researchers reviewed each article and recorded the condition treated, randomization method, number of randomized participants, time of randomization, outcomes measures, blinding, and description of dropouts and withdrawals. We used the modified Jadad scale that considers the randomization method, blinding, and dropouts/withdrawals; score 0 (lowest quality) to 5 (highest quality). The scores for the wrist and shoulder RCTs were compared with the Mann–Whitney test. Results The first references to both wrist and shoulder arthroscopy appeared in the late 1970s. The search found 4 wrist arthroscopy intervention RCTs (Kienböck’s disease, dorsal wrist ganglia, volar wrist ganglia, and distal radius fracture; first 3 compared arthroscopic with open surgery). The median number of participants was 45. The search found 50 shoulder arthroscopy intervention RCTs (rotator cuff tears 22, instability 14, impingement 9, and other conditions 5). Of these, 31 compared different arthroscopic treatments, 12 compared arthroscopic with open treatment, and 7 compared arthroscopic with nonoperative treatment. The median number of participants was 60. The median modified Jadad score for the wrist RCTs was 0.5 (range 0–1) and for the shoulder RCTs 3.0 (range 0–5) (p = 0.012). Conclusion Despite the increasing use of wrist arthroscopy in the treatment of various wrist disorders the efficacy of arthroscopically

Could ginseng-based medicines be better than nitrates in treating ischemic heart disease? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

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Jia, Yongliang; Zhang, Shikai; Huang, Fangyi; Leung, Siu-wai

2012-06-01

Ginseng-based medicines and nitrates are commonly used in treating ischemic heart disease (IHD) angina pectoris in China. Hundreds of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reported in Chinese language claimed that ginseng-based medicines can relieve the symptoms of IHD. This study provides the first PRISMA-compliant systematic review with sensitivity and subgroup analyses to evaluate the RCTs comparing the efficacies of ginseng-based medicines and nitrates in treating ischemic heart disease, particularly angina pectoris. Past RCTs published up to 2010 on ginseng versus nitrates in treating IHD for 14 or more days were retrieved from major English and Chinese databases, including PubMed, Science Direct, Cochrane Library, WangFang Data, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure. The qualities of included RCTs were assessed with Jadad scale, a refined Jadad scale called M scale, CONSORT 2010 checklist, and Cochrane risk of bias tool. Meta-analysis was performed on the primary outcomes including the improvement of symptoms and electrocardiography (ECG). Subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and meta-regression were performed to evaluate the effects of study characteristics of RCTs, including quality, follow-up periods, and efficacy definitions on the overall effect size of ginseng. Eighteen RCTs with 1549 participants were included. Overall odds ratios for comparing ginseng-based medicines with nitrates were 3.00 (95% CI: 2.27-3.96) in symptom improvement (n=18) and 1.61 (95% CI: 1.20-2.15) in ECG improvement (n=10). Subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and meta-regression found no significant difference in overall effects among all study characteristics, indicating that the overall effects were stable. The meta-analysis of 18 eligible RCTs demonstrates moderate evidence that ginseng is more effective than nitrates for treating angina pectoris. However, further RCTs for higher quality, longer follow-up periods, lager sample size, multi-center/country, and are

Quality Of Life And Prevalence Of Burnout Syndrome In Higher Education Teachers

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Maria de Lourdes Campos

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Burnout Syndrome, in the twenty-first century, appears among the most common mental disorder among teachers resulting from the interaction between  individual aspects and the working environment, interpreted as a response to chronic job stress.  Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of burnout syndrome and quality of life of higher education teachers in the city of Cajazeiras, Paraíba, Brazil.  Method: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study performed with 174 teachers from institutions of higher education.  Results: The burnout syndrome was observed in only 3.4% of teachers. However, the recorded data require a closer look at the health of the teachers investigated, since a considerable part of them are in the score limit for disease development. Regarding the quality of life of teachers who presented the manifestations of the syndrome, the physical and psychological domains were shown to be the worst for most subjects.  Conclusion: There are teachers in higher education, executing their  profession, affected by burnout syndrome, suggesting a  relationship between this psychosocial phenomenon and the labor context, permeating  the three dimensions proposed by Maslach and Leiter: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and the lack of personal fulfillment.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.3823/2512

ENQA: 10 Years (2000-2010): A Decade of European Co-Operation in Quality Assurance in Higher Education

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Crozier, Fiona, Ed.; Costes, Nathalie, Ed.; Ranne, Paula, Ed.; Stalter, Maria, Ed.

2010-01-01

The history of ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) arises in the late 1990s when the first formal procedures for quality assurance begun to stabilize on a national level. As a result of the European Pilot Projects in the field of external quality assurance during the nineties, participants felt the need for…

Total Quality Management Elements and Results in Higher Education Institutions: The Greek Case

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Psomas, Evangelos; Antony, Jiju

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the main total quality management (TQM) elements adopted and the respective results achieved by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Greece. Design/methodology/approach: A research study was designed and carried out in private sector Greek HEIs. Fifteen HEIs were approached through interviews…

The Methodological Approaches to Formation of the Internal System of Quality of Education of Higher Education Institution

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Doronin Stepan A.

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The necessity of creation of a national conception of formation of the internal system of quality assurance of higher education institutions with obligatory introduction of methodological approach in its structure is substantiated; the variant of its terminological provision with clarification of the content of concepts of «quality of education», «internal system of quality of education», «methodological approach» is proposed; positioning of the approach in the system of other standard scientific instruments (method, methodology, program, algorithm is done; arguments for the orientation of the methodology of formation of the internal system of quality assurance of higher education institutions towards the socio-cultural model of paradigm are provided; a hierarchical classification of methodological approaches with allocation of the philosophical, scientific, concrete-scientific, technological levels and the characteristics of their purpose and contents is presented.

SERVQUAL Application and Adaptation for Educational Service Quality Assessments in Russian Higher Education

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Galeeva, Railya B.

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate an adaptation of the SERVQUAL survey method for measuring the quality of higher educational services in a Russian university context. We use a new analysis and a graphical technique for presentation of results. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology of this research follows the classic…

Do authors report surgical expertise in open spine surgery related randomized controlled trials? A systematic review on quality of reporting

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van Oldenrijk, Jakob; van Berkel, Youri; Kerkhoffs, Gino M. M. J.; Bhandari, Mohit; Poolman, Rudolf W.

2013-01-01

A systematic review of published trials in orthopedic spine literature. To determine the quality of reporting in open spine surgery randomized controlled trials (RCTs) between 2005 and 2010 with special focus on the reporting of surgical skill or expertise. In technically demanding procedures such

Unfreezing Higher Education Institutions? Understanding the Introduction of Quality Management in Teaching and Learning in Germany

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Seyfried, Markus; Ansmann, Moritz

2018-01-01

Quality management (QM) in teaching and learning has strongly "infected" the higher education sector and spread around the world. It has almost everywhere become an integral part of higher education reforms. While existing research on QM mainly focuses on the national level from a macro-perspective, its introduction at the institutional…

Lipid based nutrient supplements (LNS) for treatment of children (6 months to 59 months) with moderate acute malnutrition (MAM): A systematic review

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Pena-Rosas, Juan Pablo; Boy-Mena, Evelyn; Sachdev, Harshpal S.

2017-01-01

Background Moderate acute malnutrition is a major public health problem affecting children from low- and middle-income countries. Lipid nutrient supplements have been proposed as a nutritional intervention for its treatment. Objectives To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of LNS for the treatment of MAM in infants and children 6 to 59 months of age. Study design Systematic review of randomized-controlled trials and controlled before-after studies. Results Data from nine trials showed that use of LNS, in comparison to specially formulated foods, improved the recovery rate (RR 1.08; 95% CI 1.02–1.14, 8 RCTs, 8934 participants, low quality evidence); decreased the chances of no recovery (RR 0.70; 95% CI 0.58–0.85, 7 RCTs, 8364 participants, low quality evidence) and the risk of deterioration into severe acute malnutrition (RR 0.87; 95% CI 0.73–1.03, 6 RCTs, 6788 participants, low quality evidence). There was little impact on mortality (RR 0.94, 95% CI 0.54–1.52, 8 RCTs, 8364 participants, very-low- quality evidence) or default rate (RR 1.32; 95% CI 0.73–2.4, 7 studies, 7570 participants, low quality evidence). There was improvement in weight gain, weight-for-height z-scores, height-for-age z-scores and mid-upper arm circumference. Subset analyses suggested higher recovery rates with greater amount of calories provided and with ready-to-use therapeutic foods, in comparison to ready-to-use supplementary foods. One study comparing LNS with nutritional counselling (very low quality evidence) showed higher chance of recovery, lower risk of deteriorating into severe acute malnutrition and lower default rate, with no impact on mortality, and no recovery. Conclusions Evidence restricted to the African regions suggests that LNS may be slightly more effective than specially formulated fortified foods or nutritional counselling in recovery from MAM, lowering the risk of deterioration into SAM, and improving weight gain with little impact on mortality or default

The quality of the reported sample size calculations in randomized controlled trials indexed in PubMed.

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Lee, Paul H; Tse, Andy C Y

2017-05-01

There are limited data on the quality of reporting of information essential for replication of the calculation as well as the accuracy of the sample size calculation. We examine the current quality of reporting of the sample size calculation in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in PubMed and to examine the variation in reporting across study design, study characteristics, and journal impact factor. We also reviewed the targeted sample size reported in trial registries. We reviewed and analyzed all RCTs published in December 2014 with journals indexed in PubMed. The 2014 Impact Factors for the journals were used as proxies for their quality. Of the 451 analyzed papers, 58.1% reported an a priori sample size calculation. Nearly all papers provided the level of significance (97.7%) and desired power (96.6%), and most of the papers reported the minimum clinically important effect size (73.3%). The median (inter-quartile range) of the percentage difference of the reported and calculated sample size calculation was 0.0% (IQR -4.6%;3.0%). The accuracy of the reported sample size was better for studies published in journals that endorsed the CONSORT statement and journals with an impact factor. A total of 98 papers had provided targeted sample size on trial registries and about two-third of these papers (n=62) reported sample size calculation, but only 25 (40.3%) had no discrepancy with the reported number in the trial registries. The reporting of the sample size calculation in RCTs published in PubMed-indexed journals and trial registries were poor. The CONSORT statement should be more widely endorsed. Copyright © 2016 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quality Research in Higher Education Institutions in Oman: Some Views of Teacher Researchers

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Ahmed Ali Saleh Al Ajmi

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Academic research remains a prime source of knowledge and innovation for higher education institutions (HEIs that strive to grow, expand and develop their academic reputations and standards. Yet, research informs teaching practices, shapes social changes and it has financial outcomes for HEIs. Therefore, it is imperative to develop institutional policies and strategies for promoting and sustaining quality research in HEIs in Oman. There are a number of international frameworks and models which have been developed to measure research quality in HEIs around the world. For example, bibliometrics were used to assess research quality in HEIs in the UK because bibliometric data can provide a number of component variables. An appropriate bibliometric model may include components such as output volume, diversity of outputs, citation volume, journal impact factor and average citations per publication, etc. Moreover, other popular examples of models for assessing research quality are Multidimensional Research Assessment Matrix (MRAM used in Europe and the UK’s Research Assessment Exercise (RAE. However, neither of the above mentioned models is adopted by HEIs in Oman. Thus, the current study is an attempt to explore some institutional, international, logistic and pragmatic factors that impact academic research and publication quality, review popular international research quality assessment models and explore the possibility of applying them in the Omani context. To achieve the study objectives, 20 teacher researchers were surveyed and the findings and recommendations were presented. Keywords: Quality Research, HEIs in Oman, International Models, Factors, Teacher Researchers' Views

Implementing a Quality Management Framework in a Higher Education Organisation: A Case Study

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O'Mahony, Kim; Garavan, Thomas N.

2012-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to report and analyse the lessons learned from a case study on the implementation of a quality management system within an IT Division in a higher education (HE) organisation. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a review of the relevant literatures and the use of primary sources such as document analysis,…

Librarian co-authors correlated with higher quality reported search strategies in general internal medicine systematic reviews.

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Rethlefsen, Melissa L; Farrell, Ann M; Osterhaus Trzasko, Leah C; Brigham, Tara J

2015-06-01

To determine whether librarian and information specialist authorship was associated with better reported systematic review (SR) search quality. SRs from high-impact general internal medicine journals were reviewed for search quality characteristics and reporting quality by independent reviewers using three instruments, including a checklist of Institute of Medicine Recommended Standards for the Search Process and a scored modification of the Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies instrument. The level of librarian and information specialist participation was significantly associated with search reproducibility from reported search strategies (Χ(2) = 23.5; P Librarian co-authored SRs had significantly higher odds of meeting 8 of 13 analyzed search standards than those with no librarian participation and six more than those with mentioned librarian participation. One-way ANOVA showed that differences in total search quality scores between all three groups were statistically significant (F2,267 = 10.1233; P librarian or information specialist co-authors are correlated with significantly higher quality reported search strategies. To minimize bias in SRs, authors and editors could encourage librarian engagement in SRs including authorship as a potential way to help improve documentation of the search strategy. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of exercise training on quality of life, symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety and emotional well-being in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review.

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van der Heijden, M M P; van Dooren, F E P; Pop, V J M; Pouwer, F

2013-06-01

Psychological problems are relatively common in people with type 2 diabetes. It is unclear whether exercise training exerts an effect on quality of life, symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety and emotional well-being in people with type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review to assess the effects of exercise training on these outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes. MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase and ClinicalTrials.gov databases were searched. The review included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of at least 4 weeks' duration in people with type 2 diabetes that evaluated the effect of exercise training on quality of life, symptoms of depression, symptoms of anxiety and/or emotional well-being compared with usual care. Of 1,261 retrieved articles, 20 RCTs were included with a total of 1,719 participants. Quality of life was assessed in 16 studies. Between-group comparisons showed no significant results for aerobic training with the exception of one study, and mixed results for resistance and combined training. Symptoms of depression were assessed in four studies. In only one study did the intervention decrease symptoms of depression. Emotional well-being was evaluated in four studies, which also showed conflicting results. Symptoms of anxiety were evaluated in one study, which showed a significant improvement. The effects of exercise training on psychological outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes are conflicting. Therefore, there is a need for further high-quality RCTs in order to gain greater insight into the role of exercise training in people with type 2 diabetes.

Review of the Research Literature on Defining and Demonstrating Quality Teaching and Impact in Higher Education

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Strang, Lucy; Bélanger, Julie; Manville, Catriona; Meads, Catherine

2016-01-01

In March 2016, the Higher Education Academy (HEA) commissioned RAND Europe to conduct a literature review of research published since 2012, with the aim of identifying and summarising the key trends and issues in the literature on how "quality teaching" and its impact are currently being defined and demonstrated at higher education…

Are reports of randomized controlled trials improving over time? A systematic review of 284 articles published in high-impact general and specialized medical journals.

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To, Matthew J; Jones, Jennifer; Emara, Mohamed; Jadad, Alejandro R

2013-01-01

Inadequate reporting undermines findings of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). This study assessed and compared articles published in high-impact general medical and specialized journals. Reports of RCTs published in high-impact general and specialized medical journals were identified through a search of MEDLINE from January to March of 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010. Articles that provided original data on adult patients diagnosed with chronic conditions were included in the study. Data on trial characteristics, reporting of allocation concealment, quality score, and the presence of a trial flow diagram were extracted independently by two reviewers, and discrepancies were resolved by consensus or independent adjudication. Descriptive statistics were used for quantitative variables. Comparisons between general medical and specialized journals, and trends over time were performed using Chi-square tests. Reports of 284 trials were analyzed. There was a significantly higher proportion of RCTs published with adequate reporting of allocation concealment (p = 0.003), presentation of a trial flow diagram (pgeneral medical journals had higher quality scores than those in specialized journals (p = 0.001), reported adequate allocation concealment more often (p = 0.013), and presented a trial flow diagram more often (pjournals over the last fifteen years. These improvements are likely attributed to concerted international efforts to improve reporting quality such as CONSORT. There is still much room for improvement, especially among specialized journals.

PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY AND STUDENTS' SATISFACTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE INFLUENCE OF TEACHING METHODS

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Eugenia Pedro

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The main aim of this research was to study the relationship between perceived quality (PQ and satisfaction in Higher education, and especially to identify if these variables could differ between groups of students exposed to different teaching methods. A quantitative study was conducted at a Portuguese Faculty of Health Sciences, through a survey applied to a final sample of 359 students. Data analysis was performed through a structural equation model, using, for this purpose, the PLS method. Results confirm that PQ is positively related to students' satisfaction in the Higher Education Institutions (HEI context, and that PQ and satisfaction are significantly different when students are exposed to different teaching approaches. Although there is a substantial body of evidence regarding teaching methods in HEI, to our knowledge there is no reliable prior study that explicitly approached the influence of alternative teaching methods on students' satisfaction and their perception of service quality.

Brewing Service Quality in Higher Education: Characteristics of Ingredients that Make up the Recipe

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Yeo, Roland K.

2008-01-01

Purpose: The paper seeks to explore the influences of service quality in higher education and the perceptions associated with the implementation of a Singapore tertiary institution. It draws on the underpinnings of SERVQUAL, and discusses the dichotomy and interrelation between customer perception and expectation. Design/methodology/approach:…

The information system of learning quality control in higher education institutions: achievements and problems of European universities

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Orekhova Elena

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the main trends in the development of the system of learning quality control connected with the European integration of higher education and the democratization of education. The authors analyze the state of information systems of learning quality control existing in European higher education and identify their strong and weak points. The authors show that in the learning process universities actively use innovative analytic methods as well as modern means of collecting, storing and transferring information that ensure the successful management of such a complex object as the university of the 21st century.

Does Internal Quality Management Contribute to More Control or to Improvement of Higher Education?: A Survey on Faculty's Perceptions

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Kleijnen, Jan; Dolmans, Diana; Willems, Jos; van Hout, Hans

2011-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore faculty's perceptions of quality management activities (QMA) within their departments, attention being paid to relevant quality aspects and whether quality management contributes to control or improvement of higher education. Furthermore, it examines differences between departments and relationships…

The Long Road--How Evolving Institutional Governance Mechanisms Are Changing the Face of Quality in Portuguese Higher Education

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Sarrico, Cláudia S.; Veiga, Amélia; Amaral, Alberto

2013-01-01

While a lot has been written regarding the changing management and governance arrangements in higher education, less is known about how this progression relates to quality in higher education. The purpose of this article is to describe the context of governance in Portuguese higher education institutions and how institutional governance…

Mentoring Professors: A Model for Developing Quality Online Instructors and Courses in Higher Education

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Barczyk, Casimir; Buckenmeyer, Janet; Feldman, Lori

2010-01-01

This article presents a four-stage model for mentoring faculty in higher education to deliver high quality online instruction. It provides a timeline that shows the stages of program implementation. Known as the Distance Education Mentoring Program, its major outcomes include certified instructors, student achievement, and the attainment of a…

Strategies of Raising the Quality of Higher Education and Attaining Equality of Educational Opportunities

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Petrovskiy, Igor V.; Agapova, Elena N.

2016-01-01

The aim of the research is to develop the policy and strategy recommendations to increase the quality of higher education in Russian Federation. The study examines the significance of equal educational opportunities and the influence of this factor on the educational systems of developing countries. Transformational processes in the domain of…

Randomized controlled trials and neuro-oncology: should alternative designs be considered?

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Mansouri, Alireza; Shin, Samuel; Cooper, Benjamin; Srivastava, Archita; Bhandari, Mohit; Kondziolka, Douglas

2015-09-01

Deficiencies in design and reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) hinders interpretability and critical appraisal. The reporting quality of recent RCTs in neuro-oncology was analyzed to assess adequacy of design and reporting. The MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched to identify non-surgical RCTs (years 2005-2014, inclusive). The CONSORT and Jadad scales were used to assess the quality of design/reporting. Studies published in 2005-2010 were compared as a cohort against studies published in 2011-2014, in terms of general characteristics and reporting quality. A PRECIS-based scale was used to designate studies on the pragmatic-explanatory continuum. Spearman's test was used to assess correlations. Regression analysis was used to assess associations. Overall 68 RCTs were identified. Studies were often chemotherapy-based (n = 41 studies) focusing upon high grade gliomas (46 %) and metastases (41 %) as the top pathologies. Multi-center trials (71 %) were frequent. The overall median CONSORT and Jadad scores were 34.5 (maximum 44) and 2 (maximum 5), respectively; these scores were similar in radiation and chemotherapy-based trials. Major areas of deficiency pertained to allocation concealment, implementation of methods, and blinding whereby less than 20 % of articles fulfilled all criteria. Description of intervention, random sequence generation, and the details regarding recruitment were also deficient; less than 50 % of studies fulfilled all criteria. Description of sample size calculations and blinding improved in later published cohorts. Journal impact factor was significantly associated with higher quality (p = 0.04). Large academic consortia, multi-center designs, ITT analysis, collaboration with biostatisticians, larger sample sizes, and studies with pragmatic objectives were more likely to achieve positive primary outcomes on univariate analysis; none of these variables were significant on multivariate analysis. Deficiencies in the

Higher Degree Committee Members’ Perceptions of Quality Assurance of Doctoral Education: A South African Perspective

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Shan Simmonds

2016-10-01

Full Text Available In South Africa four key policy discourses underpin doctoral education: growth, capacity, efficiency, and quality discourses. This article contributes to the discourse on quality by engaging with quality assurance from the perspective of the decision makers and implementers of macro policy (national, meso (institutional, and micro (faculty/departmental levels. We explore the perceptions that members of higher degree committees in the field of Education have of the quality assurance of doctoral education. Our data are drawn from a national survey questionnaire completed by these respondents at all public South African institutions that offer a doctorate in Education. The insights gained reside within four categories: positionality, policy, programmes, and people (stakeholders. Thereafter, we problematised the main results using academic freedom in a mode 3 knowledge production environment as a lens, which revealed thought provoking directions for future research about doctoral education.

Acupuncture for Functional Dyspepsia: What Strength Does It Have? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

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Li, Jing; Li, Bo; Hu, Ya-Cai; Cai, Qiu-Han

2016-01-01

Background. Although the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy on functional dyspepsia (FD) has been systematically reviewed, the available reports are still contradictive and no robust evidence has been provided to date. Objective. To assess the current evidence of high quality on the effects of acupuncture for patients with FD. Methods. A comprehensive literature database search was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing acupuncture therapies (including manual acupuncture and electroacupuncture) to sham acupuncture and medication use. A meta-analysis was performed following a strict methodology. Results. 16 RCTs involving 1436 participants were included. The majority of the trials were determined to be of low quality. Positive results were found for acupuncture in improving the Nepean Dyspepsia Index (NDI) and scores of the MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), as well as in alleviating relevant symptoms (especially postprandial fullness and early satiation) of FD patients. Conclusion. Based on current available evidence, acupuncture therapy achieves statistically significant effect for FD in comparison with sham acupuncture and is superior to medication (prokinetic agents) in improving the symptoms and quality of life of FD patients. Nonetheless, despite stringent methodological analyses, the conclusion of our review still needs to be strengthened by additional RCTs of higher quality. PMID:28119758

Academics\\' perceptions of `quality in higher education\\' and quality ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

academics. The article discusses various perceptions of QHE as well as the concern for quality nationally and internationally and distils out some general QP, QA, QC and QM strategies. This research was a case study. The sample consisted of 28 academics from the Faculty of Science. Data were gathered mainly through

QUALITY-RELATED FUNDING IN ROMANIAN HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGHOUT 2003 – 2011: A GLOBAL ASSESSMENT

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Gabriel-Alexandru Vîiu

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The article explores quality-related funding and its global outcomes in the context of Romanian higher education by focusing on the funding allocations provided to public universities throughout a period of nine years based on their institutional performance on the quality indicators integrated in the funding algorithm. Global funding allocations between universities are analysed and a summative appraisal for the entire nine-year window is provided. The article also explores the relation between quality- related funding, institutional disciplinary profiles and the results of a comprehensive evaluation conducted in 2011 by the Ministry of Education to complete a classification of the universities. The main findings indicate a low overall impact of qualityrelated funding for many institutions, but also a clear pattern in which universities focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics overwhelmingly outperformed mixed institutions, as well as those focused on humanities, arts and social sciences. Furthermore, the global quality-related funding outcomes of the 2003 – 2011 period studied in the paper are shown to be significantly associated with the results of the 2011 classification

Expansion vs. Quality: Emerging Issues of For-Profit Private Higher Education Institutions in Ethiopia

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Alemu, Daniel S.

2010-02-01

Private for-profit higher education has been rapidly expanding in developing countries worldwide since the early 1990s. This global trend has been particularly evident in Ethiopia, where only three public universities existed until 1996. By 2005, about 60 private for-profit higher education institutions had been founded in Ethiopia. This has led to mixed feelings among the Ethiopian public. While some laud the opportunities and advantages these new institutions bring, others are apprehensive that the quality of education might be compromised by an expansion motivated by monetary gain. This article sheds light on these paradoxes and provides suggestions for policy and practices.

Equality adds quality: On upgrading higher education and research in the field of law

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Baer Susanne

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Much has been attempted, and many projects are still underway aimed at achieving equality in higher education and research. Today, the key argument to demand and support the integration of gender in academia is that equality is indeed about the quality on which academic work is supposed to be based. Although more or less national political, social and cultural contexts matter as much as academic environments, regarding higher education and research, the integration of gender into the field of law seems particularly interesting. Faculties of law enjoy a certain standing and status, are closely connected to power and politics, and are likely to feature resistance to equality efforts, both in the law itself and in the curriculum and research agenda. However, a multidimensional, intersectional gender analysis helps to reframe cases and doctrines, rulings and regulations far beyond the law that evidently affects women, which the headscarf controversies illustrate. In addition to gender competence, team diversity is a procedural device for success, and non-discrimination is a key requirement when diversity is meant to work. After all, such efforts - to expose bias and educate about gender in an academic field, to insist and integrate it continuously, and to not only demand but also do it - produce quality. Thus, gender equality is crucial for the achievement of the best possible results in higher education and research.

Do Electronic Technologies Increase or Narrow Differences in Higher Education Quality between Low- and High-Income Countries?

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Capshaw, Norman Clark

2008-01-01

The disruptive technologies of the Internet and computers are changing our world in myriad ways. These technologies are also increasingly being employed in higher education but to what effect? Are the effects on higher education quality measurable, and if so, what is the effect on the traditional gap between high-income and low- to middle-income…

Longer guts and higher food quality increase energy intake in migratory swans.

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van Gils, Jan A; Beekman, Jan H; Coehoorn, Pieter; Corporaal, Els; Dekkers, Ten; Klaassen, Marcel; van Kraaij, Rik; de Leeuw, Rinze; de Vries, Peter P

2008-11-01

1. Within the broad field of optimal foraging, it is increasingly acknowledged that animals often face digestive constraints rather than constraints on rates of food collection. This therefore calls for a formalization of how animals could optimize food absorption rates. 2. Here we generate predictions from a simple graphical optimal digestion model for foragers that aim to maximize their (true) metabolizable food intake over total time (i.e. including nonforaging bouts) under a digestive constraint. 3. The model predicts that such foragers should maintain a constant food retention time, even if gut length or food quality changes. For phenotypically flexible foragers, which are able to change the size of their digestive machinery, this means that an increase in gut length should go hand in hand with an increase in gross intake rate. It also means that better quality food should be digested more efficiently. 4. These latter two predictions are tested in a large avian long-distance migrant, the Bewick's swan (Cygnus columbianus bewickii), feeding on grasslands in its Dutch wintering quarters. 5. Throughout winter, free-ranging Bewick's swans, growing a longer gut and experiencing improved food quality, increased their gross intake rate (i.e. bite rate) and showed a higher digestive efficiency. These responses were in accordance with the model and suggest maintenance of a constant food retention time. 6. These changes doubled the birds' absorption rate. Had only food quality changed (and not gut length), then absorption rate would have increased by only 67%; absorption rate would have increased by only 17% had only gut length changed (and not food quality). 7. The prediction that gross intake rate should go up with gut length parallels the mechanism included in some proximate models of foraging that feeding motivation scales inversely to gut fullness. We plea for a tighter integration between ultimate and proximate foraging models.

Metformin during ovulation induction with gonadotrophins followed by timed intercourse or intrauterine insemination for subfertility associated with polycystic ovary syndrome.

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Bordewijk, Esmée M; Nahuis, Marleen; Costello, Michael F; Van der Veen, Fulco; Tso, Leopoldo O; Mol, Ben Willem J; van Wely, Madelon

2017-01-24

outcome assessors. Live birth Metformin plus FSH was associated with a higher cumulative live birth rate when compared with FSH (odds ratio (OR) 2.31, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.23 to 4.34; two RCTs, n = 180; I 2 = 0%; low-quality evidence). This suggests that if the chance of live birth after FSH is assumed to be 27%, then the chance after addition of metformin would be between 32% and 60%. Other pregnancy outcomes Metformin use was associated with a higher ongoing pregnancy rate (OR 2.46, 95% CI 1.36 to 4.46; four RCTs, n = 232; I 2 = 0%; low-quality evidence) and a higher clinical pregnancy rate (OR 2.51, 95% CI 1.46 to 4.31; five RCTs, n = 264; I 2 = 0%; low-quality evidence). Multiple pregnancy Results showed no evidence of a difference in multiple pregnancy rates between metformin plus FSH and FSH (OR 0.55, 95% CI 0.15 to 1.95; four RCTs, n = 232; I 2 = 0%; low-quality evidence) and no evidence of a difference in rates of miscarriage or OHSS. Other adverse effects Evidence was inadequate as the result of limited available data on adverse events after metformin compared with after no metformin (OR 1.78, 95% CI 0.39 to 8.09; two RCTs, n = 91; I 2 = 0%; very low-quality evidence). Preliminary evidence suggests that metformin may increase the live birth rate among women undergoing ovulation induction with gonadotrophins. At this moment, evidence is insufficient to show an effect of metformin on multiple pregnancy rates and adverse events. Additional trials are necessary before we can provide further conclusions that may affect clinical practice.

Quality of complication reporting in the surgical literature.

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Martin, Robert C G; Brennan, Murray F; Jaques, David P

2002-06-01

To identify 10 critical elements of accurate and comprehensive reports of surgical complications. Despite a venerable tradition of weekly morbidity and mortality conferences, inconsistent complication reporting is common in the surgical literature. An analysis of articles reporting short-term outcomes after pancreatectomy, esophagectomy, and hepatectomy was performed. Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) published from 1975 to 2001 and retrospective series of more than 100 patients published from 1990 to 2001 were reviewed. A total of 119 articles reporting outcomes in 22,530 patients were analyzed. This included 42 RCTs and 77 retrospective series. Of the 10 criteria developed, no articles met all criteria; 2% met 9 criteria, 38% 7 or 8, 34% 5 or 6, 40% 3 or 4, and 12% 1 or 2. Outpatient information (22% of articles), definitions of complications provided (34% of articles), severity grade used (20% of articles), and risk factors included in analysis (29% of articles) were the most commonly unmet quality reporting criteria. Type of study (RCT vs. retrospective), site of institution (U.S. vs. non-U.S.) and journal (U.S. vs. non-U.S.) did not influence the quality of complication reporting. Short-term surgical outcomes are routinely included in the data reported in the surgical literature. This is often used to show improvements over time or to assess the impact of therapeutic changes on patient outcome. The inconsistency of reporting and the lack of accepted principles of accrual, display, and analysis of complication data argue strongly for the creation and generalized use of standards for reporting this information.

Information Support of the Higher Education Quality Management System

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Murat K. Baymuldin

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The article deals with the quality management system (QMS of a university as a combination of organizational structure, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement quality policy with the help of quality planning, management, control and improvement, the need for automated information system of the university quality management system control

Economic evidence for the clinical management of major depressive disorder: a systematic review and quality appraisal of economic evaluations alongside randomised controlled trials.

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Karyotaki, E; Tordrup, D; Buntrock, C; Bertollini, R; Cuijpers, P

2017-10-01

The aim of this systematic review of economic evaluations alongside randomised controlled trials (RCTs) was to provide a comprehensive overview of the evidence concerning cost-effectiveness analyses of common treatment options for major depression. An existing database was used to identify studies reporting cost-effectiveness results from RCTs. This database has been developed by a systematic literature search in the bibliographic databases of PubMed, PsychINFO, Embase and Cochrane library from database inception to December 2014. We evaluated the quality of economic evaluations using a 10-item short version of the Drummond checklist. Results were synthesised narratively. The risk of bias of the included RCTs was assessed, based on the Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool. Fourteen RCTs were included from the 5580 articles screened on titles and abstracts. The methodological quality of the health economic evaluations was relatively high and the majority of the included RCTs had low risk of bias in most of Cochrane items except blinding of participants and personnel. Cognitive behavioural therapy was examined in seven trials as part of a variety of treatment protocols and seems cost-effective compared with pharmacotherapy in the long-term. However cost-effectiveness results for the combination of psychotherapy with pharmacotherapy are conflicting and should be interpreted with caution due to limited comparability between the examined trials. For several treatments, only a single economic evaluation was reported as part of a clinical trial. This was the case for comparisons between different classes of antidepressants, for several types of psychotherapy (behavioural activation, occupational therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, short-term psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, rational emotive behavioural therapy, solution focused therapy), and for transcranial magnetic stimulation v. electroconvulsive therapy. The limited evidence base for these interventions

Minimally Invasive versus Open Spine Surgery: What Does the Best Evidence Tell Us?

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McClelland, Shearwood; Goldstein, Jeffrey A

2017-01-01

Spine surgery has been transformed significantly by the growth of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) procedures. Easily marketable to patients as less invasive with smaller incisions, MIS is often perceived as superior to traditional open spine surgery. The highest quality evidence comparing MIS with open spine surgery was examined. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving MIS versus open spine surgery was performed using the Entrez gateway of the PubMed database for articles published in English up to December 28, 2015. RCTs and systematic reviews of RCTs of MIS versus open spine surgery were evaluated for three particular entities: Cervical disc herniation, lumbar disc herniation, and posterior lumbar fusion. A total of 17 RCTs were identified, along with six systematic reviews. For cervical disc herniation, MIS provided no difference in overall function, arm pain relief, or long-term neck pain. In lumbar disc herniation, MIS was inferior in providing leg/low back pain relief, rehospitalization rates, quality of life improvement, and exposed the surgeon to >10 times more radiation in return for shorter hospital stay and less surgical site infection. In posterior lumbar fusion, MIS transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) had significantly reduced 2-year societal cost, fewer medical complications, reduced time to return to work, and improved short-term Oswestry Disability Index scores at the cost of higher revision rates, higher readmission rates, and more than twice the amount of intraoperative fluoroscopy. The highest levels of evidence do not support MIS over open surgery for cervical or lumbar disc herniation. However, MIS TLIF demonstrates advantages along with higher revision/readmission rates. Regardless of patient indication, MIS exposes the surgeon to significantly more radiation; it is unclear how this impacts patients. These results should optimize informed decision-making regarding MIS versus open spine surgery

Determining Perceptual Gaps of Service Quality and Value in Higher Education: A Midwestern Bible College

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McIntosh, Benjamin T.

2017-01-01

This doctoral research project examined perceptual gaps of service quality and value in the context of higher education. The researcher performed quantitative analysis of survey data gathered from students at a small, Midwestern Bible college. Students self-selected to participate in this research project and, using class status as an independent…

The effects of exercise on the quality of life of patients with breast cancer (the UMBRELLA Fit study) : study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gal, Roxanne; Monninkhof, Evelyn M; Groenwold, Rolf H H; van Gils, Carla H; van den Bongard, Desiree H J G; Peeters, Petra H M; Verkooijen, Helena M; May, Anne M

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND: Meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have shown that exercise has beneficial effects on quality of life (QoL) in patients with breast cancer. However, these effects were often small. Blinding in an exercise trial is not possible, which has the possible disadvantage of

ASPECTS REGARDING THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF SPORT IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN ROMANIA

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Sorin BUHAȘ

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study addresses sport in higher education in rel ation to its organization structure, quality and sports performance. We have studied documents, normative acts and the way in which certain decisional factors involved in higher education sports activities are organized. The lack of a concrete strategy inthis respect, renders the information sources to be relatively limited. Particularly, our research was based on scientific documentation, historical method and document analysis. There is a small number of legitimated athletes related to the number of higher education students. Higher education sport is a non-functional system, it cannot generate a representative number of participants in the National University Championships, and the international representation is not a natural consequence of the internal competition. Therefore, it is imperative for higher education sports to be the foundation of performance sports. This involves changing both the approach to this phenomenon and its organizational structure. Also, the development of human resources and sports infrastructure are essential conditions for the development ofsports activity.

Different methods and settings for glucose monitoring for gestational diabetes during pregnancy.

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Raman, Puvaneswary; Shepherd, Emily; Dowswell, Therese; Middleton, Philippa; Crowther, Caroline A

2017-10-29

Incidence of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is increasing worldwide. Blood glucose monitoring plays a crucial part in maintaining glycaemic control in women with GDM and is generally recommended by healthcare professionals. There are several different methods for monitoring blood glucose which can be carried out in different settings (e.g. at home versus in hospital). The objective of this review is to compare the effects of different methods and settings for glucose monitoring for women with GDM on maternal and fetal, neonatal, child and adult outcomes, and use and costs of health care. We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group Trials Register (30 September 2016) and reference lists of retrieved studies. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-randomised controlled trials (qRCTs) comparing different methods (such as timings and frequencies) or settings, or both, for blood glucose monitoring for women with GDM. Two authors independently assessed study eligibility, risk of bias, and extracted data. Data were checked for accuracy.We assessed the quality of the evidence for the main comparisons using GRADE, for:- primary outcomes for mothers: that is, hypertensive disorders of pregnancy; caesarean section; type 2 diabetes; and- primary outcomes for children: that is, large-for-gestational age; perinatal mortality; death or serious morbidity composite; childhood/adulthood neurosensory disability;- secondary outcomes for mothers: that is, induction of labour; perineal trauma; postnatal depression; postnatal weight retention or return to pre-pregnancy weight; and- secondary outcomes for children: that is, neonatal hypoglycaemia; childhood/adulthood adiposity; childhood/adulthood type 2 diabetes. We included 11 RCTs (10 RCTs; one qRCT) that randomised 1272 women with GDM in upper-middle or high-income countries; we considered these to be at a moderate to high risk of bias. We assessed the RCTs under five comparisons. For outcomes assessed using

Trends in the number and the quality of trial protocols involving children submitted to a French Institutional Review Board

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Isabelle Gautier

2017-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background There is a great need for high quality clinical research for children. The European Pediatric Regulation aimed to improve the quality of clinical trials in order to increase the availability of treatments for children. The main purpose of this study was to assess the evolution of both the number and the quality of pediatric trial protocols that were submitted to a French Institutional Review Board (IRB00009118 before and after the initiation of the EU Pediatric Regulation. Methods All protocols submitted to the IRB00009118 between 2003 and 2014 and conducting research on subjects under eighteen years of age were eligible. The quality of randomized clinical trials was assessed according to the guidelines developed by the Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR Network and ranked using the Jadad score. Results Out of 622 protocols submitted to the Institutional Review Board (IRB, 21% (133/622 included children. Among these 133 pediatric protocols, the number of submitted pediatric protocols doubled between the two studied periods. From 2003 to 2008, 47 protocols including 21 institutionally sponsored were submitted to the IRB and from 2009 until 2014, 86 protocols including 48 institutionally sponsored were submitted. No significant trend was observed on the quality of RCTs. The overall median score of RCTs on the Jadad scale was high (3.5, 70.0% of protocols had a Jadad score ≥ 3, and 30.0% had a score < 3. Conclusion Following the EU Pediatric Regulation, the number of pediatric protocols submitted to the IRB00009118 tends to increase, but no change was noticed regarding their quality.

The health-related quality of life was not improved by targeting higher hemoglobin in the Normal Hematocrit Trial.

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Coyne, Daniel W

2012-07-01

The Normal Hematocrit Trial (NHT) was the largest trial of epoetin randomizing 1265 hemodialysis patients with cardiac disease to lower (9-11 g/dl) or higher (13-15 g/dl) hemoglobin (Hgb), hypothesizing that higher Hgb would reduce mortality, and improve survival and quality of life. The trial was terminated early, and a 1998 publication reported that targeting higher hematocrit levels led to an insignificant increase in the primary end points (death or myocardial infarct), or risk ratio 1.3, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.9-1.90, but the P-value was not given, and all-cause death risk was not reported. A higher target reportedly did not increase hospitalization rates, but did significantly improve the 'physical function' domain of quality of life. Comparing the 1996 Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-filed clinical trial report to the 1998 publication, however, found several discrepancies. Among these, the 1998 article reported interim trial results with only the adjusted CI but did not state that the unadjusted CIs were 99.912th percentile, and despite being a secondary end point, reported only the association of achieved Hgb with higher quality of life score. Randomization to the higher target had actually increased the risk for the primary end point (risk ratio 1.28, 95% CI=1.06-1.56; P=0.0112; 99.92% CI=0.92-1.78), the risk of death (risk ratio 1.27, 95% CI=1.04-1.54), non-access thrombotic events (P=0.041), and hospitalization rate (P=0.04), while 'physical function' did not improve (P=0.88). Hence, disclosure of these results in the 1998 publication or access to the FDA-filed report on the NHT in the late 1990s would likely have led to earlier concerns about epoetin safety and greater doubts about its benefits.

Achievements and Lessons Learned from Vietnam's Higher Education Quality Assurance System after a Decade of Establishment

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Nguyen, Huu Cuong; Ta, Thi Thu Hien; Nguyen, Thi Thu Huong

2017-01-01

Higher education quality assurance and accreditation were officially implemented in Vietnam over twelve years ago. From a totally centralized model, Vietnam's accreditation system has been becoming more independent, especially with the establishment of accrediting agencies. The first accreditation certificates were also awarded to universities…

The role of higher education in transforming the quality of dementia care: dementia studies at the University of Bradford.

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Downs, M; Capstick, A; Baldwin, P C; Surr, C; Bruce, E

2009-04-01

There is now widespread concern about the inadequate care and support provided to people with dementia from diagnosis to death. It is acknowledged that while there is a range of effective ways to care for and support people with dementia and their families from diagnosis to death, these have yet to become integral to practice. In England, for example, the National Dementia Strategy seeks to transform the quality of dementia care. One of the key components to transforming the quality of care is to ensure we have an informed and effective workforce. We argue here that in order to transform the quality of care we need to distinguish between the aims of training and education. Whilst there is a place for skills-based workplace training, Higher Education in dementia studies has a key role to play in the provision of specialist knowledge and skills in dementia care emphasizing as it does the development of critical thinking, reflection and action. In this paper we describe dementia studies at Bradford University available at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We outline their aims and learning outcomes, curricula, approach to teaching, learning and assessment. We describe the nature of students who study with us, noting their fit with the Higher Education Funding Council in England's agenda for widening participation in higher education. Higher Education in dementia studies has a unique role to play in equipping practitioners and professionals with the information, skills and attitudes to realize the potential for quality of life for people with dementia and their families.

Colony-stimulating factors for chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia.

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Mhaskar, Rahul; Clark, Otavio Augusto Camara; Lyman, Gary; Engel Ayer Botrel, Tobias; Morganti Paladini, Luciano; Djulbegovic, Benjamin

2014-10-30

participants; low quality evidence). Individuals who received CSF plus antibiotics were less likely to be hospitalized for more than 10 days (risk ratio (RR) 0.65 (95% CI 0.44 to 0.95) P = 0.03; 8 RCTs; 1221 participants; low quality evidence) and had more number of participants with a more faster neutrophil recovery (RR 0.52 (95% CI 0.34 to 0.81) P = 0.004; 5 RCTs; 794 participants; moderate quality evidence) than those treated with antibiotics alone. Similarly, participants receiving CSF plus antibiotics had shorter duration of neutropenia (standardized mean difference (SMD) -1.70 (95% CI -2.65 to -0.76) P = 0.0004; 9 RCTs; 1135 participants; moderate quality evidence), faster recovery from fever (SMD -0.49 (95% CI -0.90 to -0.09) P value = 0.02; 9 RCTs; 966 participants; moderate quality evidence) and shorter duration of antibiotics use (SMD -1.50 (95% CI -2.83 to -0.18) P = 0.03; 3 RCTs; 457 participants; low quality evidence) compared with participants receiving antibiotics alone. We found no significant difference in the incidence of deep venous thromboembolism (RR 1.68 (95% CI 0.72 to 3.93) P = 0.23; 4 RCTs; 389 participants; low quality evidence) in individuals treated with CSF plus antibiotics compared with those treated with antibiotics alone. We found higher incidence of bone or joint pain or flu-like symptoms (RR 1.59 (95% CI 1.04 to 2.42) P = 0.03; 6 RCTs; 622 participants; low quality evidence) in individuals treated with CSF plus antibiotics compared with those treated with antibiotics alone. Overall, the methodological quality of studies was moderate to low across different outcomes. The main reasons to downgrade the quality of evidence were inconsistency across the included studies and imprecision of results. The use of a CSF plus antibiotics in individuals with chemotherapy-induced febrile neutropenia had no effect on overall mortality, but reduced the amount of time participants spent in hospital and improved their ability to achieve neutrophil recovery. It

Technical Quality of Root Canal Treatment Performed by Undergraduate Clinical Students of Isfahan Dental School.

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Saatchi, Masoud; Mohammadi, Golshan; Vali Sichani, Armita; Moshkforoush, Saba

2018-01-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the radiographic quality of RCTs performed by undergraduate clinical students of Dental School of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. In this cross sectional study, records and periapical radiographs of 1200 root filled teeth were randomly selected from the records of patients who had received RCTs in Dental School of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences from 2013 to 2015. After excluding 416 records, the final sample consisted of 784 root-treated teeth (1674 root canals). Two variables including the length and the density of the root fillings were examined. Moreover, the presence of ledge, foramen perforation, root perforation and fractured instruments were also evaluated as procedural errors. Descriptive statistics were used for expressing the frequencies of criteria and chi square test was used for comparing tooth types, tooth locations and academic level of students ( P students was not satisfactory and incidence of procedural errors was considerable.

Meta-analytic comparison of randomized and nonrandomized studies of breast cancer surgery.

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Edwards, Janet P; Kelly, Elizabeth J; Lin, Yongtao; Lenders, Taryn; Ghali, William A; Graham, Andrew J

2012-06-01

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are thought to provide the most accurate estimation of "true" treatment effect. The relative quality of effect estimates derived from nonrandomized studies (nRCTs) remains unclear, particularly in surgery, where the obstacles to performing high-quality RCTs are compounded. We performed a meta-analysis of effect estimates of RCTs comparing surgical procedures for breast cancer relative to those of corresponding nRCTs. English-language RCTs of breast cancer treatment in human patients published from 2003 to 2008 were identified in MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane databases. We identified nRCTs using the National Library of Medicine's "related articles" function and reference lists. Two reviewers conducted all steps of study selection. We included studies comparing 2 surgical arms for the treatment of breast cancer. Information on treatment efficacy estimates, expressed as relative risk (RR) for outcomes of interest in both the RCTs and nRCTs was extracted. We identified 12 RCTs representing 10 topic/outcome combinations with comparable nRCTs. On visual inspection, 4 of 10 outcomes showed substantial differences in summary RR. The pooled RR estimates for RCTs versus nRCTs differed more than 2-fold in 2 of 10 outcomes and failed to demonstrate consistency of statistical differences in 3 of 10 cases. A statistically significant difference, as assessed by the z score, was not detected for any of the outcomes. Randomized controlled trials comparing surgical procedures for breast cancer may demonstrate clinically relevant differences in effect estimates in 20%-40% of cases relative to those generated by nRCTs, depending on which metric is used.

Teacher evaluation system, institutions of technology higher education: quality guidelines

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Laura Belkis Parada Romero

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Due to the globalization of education, it has become prevalent to strengthen the quality systems to ensure that educational actors in higher education institutions are the best. In this context teachers are given a main role since they are cornerstones in educational processes. Currently, teacher quality is assessed through an assessment or evaluation system. Almost every university evaluates its teachers, but there is no legal regulation on how to do it, in most institutions there is a professional in charge of designing and applying assessment instruments according to the authors he/she prefers. In most universities, on the one hand, it is used a traditional questionnaire aiming to collect data about dimensions associated with teaching, on the other hand, there is another option in which assessment models include self-evaluation, as in some cases in Chile. That’s why one of the concerns of this research is to propose guidelines for a more qualitative and formative assessment not exclusively following political parameters –based on administrative decisions–, but following emerging proposals with a deeper analysis. Nowadays the main actors in teacher evaluation are teachers, students and administrative staff, every six months these actors are evaluated by using an assessment tool that they usually do not know. The research investigates the perception actors in teacher evaluation have regarding its objectives, methods and stages, so they put forward ideas on how to restructure the current institutional assessment and propose improvements aiming at both the quantitative aspect and the qualitative analysis of performances and skills.

Variations in Student Perceptions of Service Quality of Higher Education Institutions in Brazil: A Longitudinal Study

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Campos, Domingos Fernandes; dos Santos, Guido Salvi; Castro, Felipe Nalon

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine, through a longitudinal study, undergraduate student perceptions of service expectations, priorities and quality of the higher education institution that they attend, using an importance-performance rating matrix. Design/methodology/approach: This research was carried out with students exposed to a…

Students as Stakeholders in the Policy Context of the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in Higher Education Institutions

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Logermann, Frauke; Leisyte, Liudvika; Curaj, Adrian; Matei, Liviu; Pricopie, Remus; Salmi, Jamil; Scott, Peter

2015-01-01

The European Standard and Guidelines for Quality Assurance (ESG) of 2005 can be defined as one of the major Bologna documents aimed at furthering the role of students as stakeholders in internal quality assurance processes at higher education institutions (HEIs). Still little is known about

Adopting Self-Accreditation in Response to the Diversity of Higher Education: Quality Assurance in Taiwan and Its Impact on Institutions

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Chen, Karen Hui-Jung; Hou, Angela Yung-Chi

2016-01-01

In 2012, Taiwan implemented a dual-track quality assurance system comprising accreditation and self-accreditation in higher education institutions. Self-accrediting institutions can accredit their programs without requiring approval from external quality assurance agencies. In contrast to other countries, the Ministry of Education of Taiwan…

Quality and accreditation in higher education: integration and internationalization of Latin America and the Caribbean

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Jorge González González

2013-10-01

Full Text Available The paper discusses the concepts of «quality» and «accreditation» in education with different meanings, and proposes comprehensive definitions that have been put into practice by the Union of Universities of Latin America and the Caribbean and the International Network of Evaluators through model «V» evaluation planningfor continuous improvement, integration and internationalization of higher education.

Software requirements elicitation to support internal monitoring of quality assurance system for higher education in Indonesia

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Amalia, A.; Gunawan, D.; Hardi, S. M.; Rachmawati, D.

2018-02-01

The Internal Quality Assurance System (in Indonesian: SPMI (Sistem Penjaminan Mutu Internal) is a systemic activity of quality assurance of higher education in Indonesia. SPMI should be done by all higher education or universities in Indonesia based on the Regulation of the Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia Number 62 of 2016. Implementation of SPMI must refer to the principle of SPMI that is independent, standardize, accurate, well planned and sustainable, documented and systematic. To assist the SPMI cycle properly, universities need a supporting software to monitor all the activities of SPMI. But in reality, many universities are not optimal in building this SPMI monitoring system. One of the obstacles is the determination of system requirements in support of SPMI principles is difficult to achieve. In this paper, we observe the initial phase of the engineering requirements elicitation. Unlike other methods that collect system requirements from users and stakeholders, we find the system requirements of the SPMI principles from SPMI guideline book. The result of this paper can be used as a choice in determining SPMI software requirements. This paper can also be used by developers and users to understand the scenario of SPMI so that could overcome the problems of understanding between this two parties.

An Evaluation of Service Quality in Higher Education: Marmara and Nigde Omer Halisdemir Universities' Department of Education Students

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Ada, Sefer; Baysal, Z. Nurdan; Erkan, Senem Seda Sahenk

2017-01-01

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the quality service in higher education in Marmara and Nigde Omer Halisdemir Universities' department of education students. This study was prepared using a screening model from quantitative research methods. The sample of this research comprised 886 university students attending the higher education…

Internet-based self-help smoking cessation and alcohol moderation interventions for cancer survivors: a study protocol of two RCTs.

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Mujcic, Ajla; Blankers, Matthijs; Boon, Brigitte; Engels, Rutger; van Laar, Margriet

2018-04-02

Brief interventions for smoking cessation and alcohol moderation may contribute considerably to the prevention of cancer among populations at risk, such as cancer survivors, in addition to improving their general wellbeing. There is accumulating evidence for the effectiveness of internet-based brief health behaviour interventions. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness, patient-level cost-effectiveness and cost-utility of two new online theory-based self-help interventions among adult cancer survivors in the Netherlands. One of the interventions focuses on alcohol moderation, the other on smoking cessation. Both interventions are tailored to cancer survivors. Effectiveness will be assessed in two separate, nearly identical 2-armed RCTs: alcohol moderation (AM RCT) and smoking cessation (SC RCT). Participants are randomly allocated to either the intervention groups or the control groups. In the intervention groups, participants have access to one of the newly developed interventions. In the control groups, participants receive an online static information brochure on alcohol (AM RCT) or smoking (SC RCT). Main study outcome parameters are the number of drinks post-randomisation (AM RCT) and tobacco abstinence (SC RCT). In addition, cost-data and possible effect moderators and mediators will be assessed. Both treatments are internet-based minimally guided self-help interventions: MyCourse - Moderate Drinking (in Dutch: MijnKoers - Minderen met Drinken) and MyCourse - Quit Smoking (MijnKoers - Stoppen met Roken). They are based on cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), motivational interviewing (MI) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Both interventions are optimized in collaboration with the target population of cancer survivors in focus groups and interviews, and in collaboration with several experts on eHealth, smoking cessation, alcohol misuse and cancer survivorship. The present study will add to scientific knowledge on the (cost

Automatic Assessment of Pathological Voice Quality Using Higher-Order Statistics in the LPC Residual Domain

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JiYeoun Lee

2009-01-01

Full Text Available A preprocessing scheme based on linear prediction coefficient (LPC residual is applied to higher-order statistics (HOSs for automatic assessment of an overall pathological voice quality. The normalized skewness and kurtosis are estimated from the LPC residual and show statistically meaningful distributions to characterize the pathological voice quality. 83 voice samples of the sustained vowel /a/ phonation are used in this study and are independently assessed by a speech and language therapist (SALT according to the grade of the severity of dysphonia of GRBAS scale. These are used to train and test classification and regression tree (CART. The best result is obtained using an optima l decision tree implemented by a combination of the normalized skewness and kurtosis, with an accuracy of 92.9%. It is concluded that the method can be used as an assessment tool, providing a valuable aid to the SALT during clinical evaluation of an overall pathological voice quality.

Relationship Quality Time: The Validation of a Relationship Quality Scale in Higher Education

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Snijders, Ingrid; Rikers, Remy M. J. P.; Wijnia, Lisette; Loyens, Sofie M. M.

2018-01-01

This study investigated the overall "quality" of the interpersonal relationship students have with faculty and staff, that is, relationship quality (RQ). In relationship management research, RQ is paramount for the creation of bonds with customers, which in turn is necessary for the sustainability of organizations, that is, continuity…

Implementation of a Quality Improvement Process Aimed to Deliver Higher-Value Physical Therapy for Patients With Low Back Pain: Case Report.

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Karlen, Emily; McCathie, Becky

2015-12-01

The current state of health care demands higher-value care. Due to many barriers, clinicians routinely do not implement evidence-based care even though it is known to improve quality and reduce cost of care. The purpose of this case report is to describe a theory-based, multitactic implementation of a quality improvement process aimed to deliver higher-value physical therapy for patients with low back pain. Patients were treated from January 2010 through December 2014 in 1 of 32 outpatient physical therapy clinics within an academic health care system. Data were examined from 47,755 patients (mean age=50.3 years) entering outpatient physical therapy for management of nonspecific low back pain, with or without radicular pain. Development and implementation tactics were constructed from adult learning and change management theory to enhance adherence to best practice care among 130 physical therapists. A quality improvement team implemented 4 tactics: establish care delivery expectations, facilitate peer-led clinical and operational teams, foster a learning environment focused on meeting a population's needs, and continuously collect and analyze outcomes data. Physical therapy utilization and change in functional disability were measured to assess relative cost and quality of care. Secondarily, charge data assessed change in physical therapists' application of evidence-based care. Implementation of a quality improvement process was measured by year-over-year improved clinical outcomes, decreased utilization, and increased adherence to evidence-based physical therapy, which was associated with higher-value care. When adult learning and change management theory are combined in quality improvement efforts, common barriers to implementing evidence-based care can be overcome, creating an environment supportive of delivering higher-value physical therapy for patients with low back pain. © 2015 American Physical Therapy Association.

The Efficacy of Guanxinning Injection in Treating Angina Pectoris: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Yongliang; Leung, Siu-wai; Lee, Ming-Yuen; Cui, Guozhen; Huang, Xiaohui; Pan, Fongha

2013-01-01

Objective. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on Guanxinning injection (GXN) in treating angina pectoris were published only in Chinese and have not been systematically reviewed. This study aims to provide a PRISMA-compliant and internationally accessible systematic review to evaluate the efficacy of GXN in treating angina pectoris. Methods. The RCTs were included according to prespecified eligibility criteria. Meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the symptomatic (SYMPTOMS) and electrocardiographic (ECG) improvements after treatment. Odds ratios (ORs) were used to measure effect sizes. Subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and metaregression were conducted to evaluate the robustness of the results. Results. Sixty-five RCTs published between 2002 and 2012 with 6064 participants were included. Overall ORs comparing GXN with other drugs were 3.32 (95% CI: [2.72, 4.04]) in SYMPTOMS and 2.59 (95% CI: [2.14, 3.15]) in ECG. Subgroup analysis, sensitivity analysis, and metaregression found no statistically significant dependence of overall ORs upon specific study characteristics. Conclusion. This meta-analysis of eligible RCTs provides evidence that GXN is effective in treating angina pectoris. This evidence warrants further RCTs of higher quality, longer follow-up periods, larger sample sizes, and multicentres/multicountries for more extensive subgroup, sensitivity, and metaregression analyses. PMID:23634167

Measurement of Perceived Service Quality in Higher Education Institutions: A Review of HEdPERF Scale Use

Science.gov (United States)

Silva, Danilo Soares; de Morales, Gustavo Hermínio Salati Marcondes; Makiya, Ieda Kanashiro; Cesar, Francisco Ignácio Giocondo

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to find evidence of the HEdPERF scale use for measuring the perceived service quality from the perspective of students in higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic review of the literature was conducted to find evidence of the scale use in articles published between January…

Quality in Cross-Border Higher Education and Challenges for the Internationalization of National Quality Assurance Agencies in the Asia-Pacific Region: The Taiwanese Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Hou, Angela Yung-chi

2014-01-01

Cross-border higher education has created a need to build capacity -- particularly in the internationalization dimension -- for national quality assurance agencies to evaluate cross-border education provided by foreign educational providers, or jointly by local and foreign institutions. This is quickly becoming a key issue in the Asia-Pacific…

Influence of Students’ Feedback on the Quality of Adult Higher Distance Education Service Delivery

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Akpovire ODUARAN

2017-10-01

Full Text Available The evaluation of a program’s compliance with service delivery and features necessary for the attainment of the programs educational objectives, student outcomes and continuous improvement is an important element in program accreditation and continuous improvement process. The study reported in this paper investigated the possible effects of students’ feedback on the improvement of adult higher education distance learning service quality in a South African rural-based university. The study interrogated the service provision factors that seemingly helped in improving the delivery of the program. Such information are vital for planning, good governance, policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation, and for decision-making. The study used a quantitative descriptive statistics analysis of data generated ranging from 2013-2014. It comprised of overall student satisfaction as the dependent variable and the explanatory variables were given by program management, facilitation, assessment, learner support, systems, resources, program outcomes and subject matter. Analytical results were obtained from the Mann Whitney Test. The population consisted of students enrolled in the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE program by distance mode. The 313 respondents sampled were randomly selected from a total population of 916 students. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The results revealed that service qualities linked to effective management, facilitation, academic support and subject matter delivery were the main qualities that the students recommended for the improvement of the program. It is therefore recommended that adult higher education programs must have a documented systematically utilized and effective process involving program service delivery constituencies like assessment, academic support and resources provided, for the periodic review of the program educational objectives to ensure that the program remains consistent

Quality Improvement Processes in Obesity Surgery Lead to Higher Quality and Value, Lower Costs.

Science.gov (United States)

Brousseau, Holli; Pohl, Dieter

2017-03-01

In the era of changes in the evaluation of medical services and performance, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has determined that the key components are quality, value, and clinical practice improvement (MACRA). Weight Loss Surgery, also called Bariatric or Obesity Surgery, has been at the forefront of quality improvement and quality reporting through the Center of Excellence Program since 2005. As a result, weight loss surgery is now as safe as gallbladder surgery.1 Even within this culture of quality and safety, improvements are still possible, as described in this article. [Full article available at http://rimed.org/rimedicaljournal-2017-03.asp].

The Risk of Bias in Randomized Trials in General Dentistry Journals.

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Hinton, Stephanie; Beyari, Mohammed M; Madden, Kim; Lamfon, Hanadi A

2015-01-01

The use of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) research design is considered the gold standard for conducting evidence-based clinical research. In this present study, we aimed to assess the quality of RCTs in dentistry and create a general foundation for evidence-based dentistry on which to perform subsequent RCTs. We conducted a systematic assessment of bias of RCTs in seven general dentistry journals published between January 2011 and March 2012. We extracted study characteristics in duplicate and assessed each trial's quality using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. We compared risk of bias across studies graphically. Among 1,755 studies across seven journals, we identified 67 RCTs. Many included studies were conducted in Europe (39%), with an average sample size of 358 participants. These studies included 52% female participants and the maximum follow-up period was 13 years. Overall, we found a high percentage of unclear risk of bias among included RCTs, indicating poor quality of reporting within the included studies. An overall high proportion of trials with an "unclear risk of bias" suggests the need for better quality of reporting in dentistry. As such, key concepts in dental research and future trials should focus on high-quality reporting.

Interventions for emergency contraception.

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Jie; Che, Yan; Showell, Emily; Chen, Ke; Cheng, Linan

2017-08-02

Nausea and vomiting were the main adverse effects associated with emergency contraception. There is probably a lower risk of nausea (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.76, 3 RCTs, n = 2186 , I 2 = 59%, moderate-quality evidence) or vomiting (RR 0.12, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.20, 3 RCTs, n = 2186, I 2 = 0%, high-quality evidence) associated with mifepristone than with Yuzpe. levonorgestrel is probably associated with a lower risk of nausea (RR 0.40, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.44, 6 RCTs, n = 4750, I 2 = 82%, moderate-quality evidence), or vomiting (RR 0.29, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.35, 5 RCTs, n = 3640, I 2 = 78%, moderate-quality evidence) than Yuzpe. Levonorgestrel users were less likely to have any side effects than Yuzpe users (RR 0.80, 95% CI 0.75 to 0.86; 1 RCT, n = 1955, high-quality evidence). UPA users were more likely than levonorgestrel users to have resumption of menstruation after the expected date (RR 1.65, 95% CI 1.42 to 1.92, 2 RCTs, n = 3593, I 2 = 0%, high-quality evidence). Menstrual delay was more common with mifepristone than with any other intervention and appeared to be dose-related. Cu-IUD may be associated with higher risks of abdominal pain than mifepristone (18 events in 95 women using Cu-IUD versus no events in 190 women using mifepristone, low-quality evidence). Levonorgestrel and mid-dose mifepristone (25 mg to 50 mg) were more effective than Yuzpe regimen. Both mid-dose (25 mg to 50 mg) and low-dose mifepristone(less than 25 mg) were probably more effective than levonorgestrel (1.5 mg). Mifepristone low dose (less than 25 mg) was less effective than mid-dose mifepristone. UPA was more effective than levonorgestrel.Levonorgestrel users had fewer side effects than Yuzpe users, and appeared to be more likely to have a menstrual return before the expected date. UPA users were probably more likely to have a menstrual return after the expected date. Menstrual delay was probably the main adverse effect of mifepristone and seemed to be dose-related. Cu-IUD may be associated with higher

Peer Review and Reflective Teaching Practices: An Effective Mechanism for Quality Enhancement in Higher Education

OpenAIRE

Raj, Sony Jalarajan; Massey, Susan R.; Jose, Soumya

2017-01-01

Quality education and teacher accountability are predominant issues generating apprehension in higher education. Traditional methods of evaluation are giving way to more contemporary methods. One technique that is being implemented in many universities throughout the world that provides feedback and improves pedagogical approaches is a formative and collaborative process known as peer review of teaching (PRT). Review of the literature included 34 studies which identified five themes that offe...

Modeling E-learning quality assurance benchmarking in higher education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alsaif, Fatimah; Clementking, Arockisamy

2014-01-01

Online education programs have been growing rapidly. While it is somehow difficult to specifically quantify quality, many recommendations have been suggested to specify and demonstrate quality of online education touching on common areas of program enhancement and administration. To design a model

Logistics case study based research: Towards higher quality

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedrosa, Alex; Näslund, Dag; Jasmand, Claudia

2012-01-01

analysis of 134 case study based articles published in six leading logistics and supply chain management (SCM) journals between 1998 and 2010 is used to assess and evaluate the quality of the case study based research approach as documented in these publications. Findings – This research provides...... to address to ensure high quality of the case study based research approach in published articles. Research limitations/implications – This study is limited to the analysis of published articles in six logistics and SCM journals. Further research should investigate different journals in logistics and other...

Faster Defect Resolution with Higher Technical Quality of Software

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Luijten, B.; Visser, J.

2010-01-01

We performed an empirical study of the relation between technical quality of software products and the defect resolution performance of their maintainers. In particular, we tested the hypothesis that ratings for source code maintainability, as employed by the SIG quality model, are correlated with

A Study of the Interrelationships among Service Recovery, Relationship Quality, and Brand Image in Higher Education Industries

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yu-Chuan

2015-01-01

This study aims to investigate the direction and strength of the relationships among service recovery, relationship quality, and brand image in higher education industries. This research provides a framework for school managers to understand service recovery from an operations perspective. Structural equation models were used to test the proposed…

Quantity versus Quality in Turkish Higher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Arslan, Hasan

This paper asserts that there have not been adequate studies about the comparative quality of Turkish universities to provide information and data for prospective students, advisors, university administrators, and policymakers. Turkey has more than 70 state and private universities. Most of these are relatively new, although Turkish higher…

A systematic review of the quality of randomized controlled trials in head and neck oncology surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Carlton, Daniel A; Kocherginsky, Masha; Langerman, Alexander J

2015-01-01

To determine the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in head and neck surgery in which surgery was a primary intervention. Potential articles were identified in PubMed without publication date restrictions. Articles were scored using the CONSORT checklist and the relationship between the checklist score and whether the first and/or last authors were surgeons was investigated. Differences in the checklist score based on how many surgeons were among the first and last authors of the study were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Fisher's exact test was used to examine if there was a significant difference of the reporting of individual items from the checklist between surgeons and nonsurgeons. A nonparametric trend test was used to determine whether there was a difference in the reporting of individual items based on whether there were none, one, or two surgeons among first and last authors. A total of 38 publications satisfied the inclusion criteria. There was a trend toward lower quality for studies in which surgeons were either first, last, or both first and last authors compared to studies that were first-authored and last-authored by nonsurgeons (P = 0.068). Nonsurgeons were more likely to report on critical elements regarding hypothesis, sample size determination, randomization, and eligibility of centers (P = 0.023-0.058). The quality of RCTs in head and neck surgery is poor. Improved training in conducting and reporting clinical research is needed in otolaryngology residencies. © 2014 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

Minimally invasive versus open spine surgery: What does the best evidence tell us?

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Shearwood McClelland

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Spine surgery has been transformed significantly by the growth of minimally invasive surgery (MIS procedures. Easily marketable to patients as less invasive with smaller incisions, MIS is often perceived as superior to traditional open spine surgery. The highest quality evidence comparing MIS with open spine surgery was examined. Methods: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs involving MIS versus open spine surgery was performed using the Entrez gateway of the PubMed database for articles published in English up to December 28, 2015. RCTs and systematic reviews of RCTs of MIS versus open spine surgery were evaluated for three particular entities: Cervical disc herniation, lumbar disc herniation, and posterior lumbar fusion. Results: A total of 17 RCTs were identified, along with six systematic reviews. For cervical disc herniation, MIS provided no difference in overall function, arm pain relief, or long-term neck pain. In lumbar disc herniation, MIS was inferior in providing leg/low back pain relief, rehospitalization rates, quality of life improvement, and exposed the surgeon to >10 times more radiation in return for shorter hospital stay and less surgical site infection. In posterior lumbar fusion, MIS transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF had significantly reduced 2-year societal cost, fewer medical complications, reduced time to return to work, and improved short-term Oswestry Disability Index scores at the cost of higher revision rates, higher readmission rates, and more than twice the amount of intraoperative fluoroscopy. Conclusion: The highest levels of evidence do not support MIS over open surgery for cervical or lumbar disc herniation. However, MIS TLIF demonstrates advantages along with higher revision/readmission rates. Regardless of patient indication, MIS exposes the surgeon to significantly more radiation; it is unclear how this impacts patients. These results should optimize informed

Student Organizations and Their Contribution to Quality Assurance and Enhancement in Higher Education Institutions – Case Study: Romania

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Andreea Mirică

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to analyze the involvement of student organizations toward quality assurance and enhancement in higher education institutions in Romania. In order to achieve this purpose, a survey among student organizations from the main university cities in Romania has been conducted between December 2013 and May 2014. In order to analyze the results we used the frequency distribution method. One of the main findings of this paper is that there is a strong desire of a high quality education among student organizations, yet some of them do not become involved in activities contributing to quality assurance and enhancement. This paper can become a valuable tool for policy makers of the Romanian national students federations in order to design the best policies meant to encourage all the organizations participate in the quality assurance and enhancement process.

RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS IN ORTHOPEDICS AND TRAUMATOLOGY: SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS ON THE NATIONAL EVIDENCE

Science.gov (United States)

de Moraes, Vinícius Ynoe; Moreira, Cesar Domingues; Tamaoki, Marcel Jun Sugawara; Faloppa, Flávio; Belloti, Joao Carlos

2015-01-01

Objective: To assess whether there has been any improvement in the quality and quantity of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in nationally published journals through the application of standardized and validated scores. Methods: We electronically selected all RCTs published in the two indexed Brazilian journals that focus on orthopedics, over the period 2000-2009: Acta Ortopédica Brasileira (AOB) and Revista Brasileira de Ortopedia (RBO). These RCTs were identified and scored by two independent researchers in accordance with the Jadad scale and the Cochrane Bone, Joint and Muscle Trauma Group score. The studies selected were grouped as follows: 1) publication period (2000-2004 or 2004-2009); 2) journal of publication (AOB or RBO). Results: Twenty-two papers were selected: 10 from AOB and 12 from RBO. No statistically significant differences were found between the proportions (nRCT/nTotal of published papers) of RCTs published in the two journals (p = 0.458), or in the Jadad score (p = 0.722) and Cochrane score (p = 0.630). Conclusion: The relative quality and quantity of RCTs in the journals analyzed were similar. There was a trend towards improvement of quality, but there was no increase in the number of RCTs between the two periods analyzed. PMID:27026971

A Proposed Framework for Applying the National Standards of Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Sudan from the Teaching Staff’s Perspective - Faculties of Business Administration

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Alfatih Alamin Elfaki

2017-08-01

Full Text Available This study aimed to clarify the importance of having national standards and their role in achieving quality, as well as establishing a framework for the actual application of national standards in quality assurance so as to achieve quality in higher education institutions. The researchers  followed a descriptive analytical method to achieve the objectives of the study and developed a questionnaire covering primary and secondary variables that have a role in the design of specific models to help in applying the national standards by the Sudanese universities. The questionnaire included one dependent variable; the effective application of national standards of quality assurance in higher education institutions, and the four main variables (independent are: the national standards of quality assurance in higher education in Sudan, the standard of quality assurance, the standard of teaching and learning and the standard of scientific research and publication. The study revealed a number of conclusions: there were statistically significant differences in the extent of familiarity with the  national quality assurance standards in Sudan according to the academic rank of the  faculty members; there were also significant differences in the extent of compliance with the  national quality assurance standards in Sudan according to the academic rank of the faculty members; there was full agreement between the national standards for quality assurance in Sudan and the international standards for quality assurance; and  there were statistically significant differences in that the absence of specific models would have a negative impact on effective application of national standards of quality assurance in higher education in Sudan, according to the academic rank of the faculty members. Keywords: Quality, The program, Standards, University, Total quality management.

Identifying Predictors of Student Satisfaction and Student Motivation in the Framework of Assuring Quality in the Delivery of Higher Education Services

OpenAIRE

Yulia Stukalina

2014-01-01

Nowadays, the quality of educational services provided by a university is a crucial aspect of the education managers’ strategy in the customer-driven education context, quality assurance in education being an essential issue to be promoted in European higher education institutions. Students’ evaluation of the educational services (that is consumer-oriented assessment) can be regarded as one of the most significant educational management tools used for stimulating quality enhancement in a univ...

Exercise improves quality of life in androgen deprivation therapy-treated prostate cancer: systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Teleni, Laisa; Chan, Raymond J; Chan, Alexandre; Isenring, Elisabeth A; Vela, Ian; Inder, Warrick J; McCarthy, Alexandra L

2016-02-01

Men receiving androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer (PCa) are likely to develop metabolic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, abdominal obesity and osteoporosis. Other treatment-related side effects adversely influence quality of life (QoL) including vasomotor distress, depression, anxiety, mood swings, poor sleep quality and compromised sexual function. The objective of this study was to systematically review the nature and effects of dietary and exercise interventions on QoL, androgen deprivation symptoms and metabolic risk factors in men with PCa undergoing ADT. An electronic search of CINAHL, CENTRAL, Medline, PsychINFO and reference lists was performed to identify peer-reviewed articles published between January 2004 and December 2014 in English. Eligible study designs included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with pre- and post-intervention data. Data extraction and assessment of methodological quality with the Cochrane approach was conducted by two independent reviewers. Seven exercise studies were identified. Exercise significantly improved QoL, but showed no effect on metabolic risk factors (weight, waist circumference, lean or fat mass, blood pressure and lipid profile). Two dietary studies were identified, both of which tested soy supplements. Soy supplementation did not improve any outcomes. No dietary counselling studies were identified. No studies evaluated androgen-deficiency symptoms (libido, erectile function, sleep quality, mood swings, depression, anxiety and bone mineral density). Evidence from RCTs indicates that exercise enhances health- and disease-specific QoL in men with PCa undergoing ADT. Further studies are required to evaluate the effect of exercise and dietary interventions on QoL, androgen deprivation symptoms and metabolic risk factors in this cohort. © 2016 Society for Endocrinology.

Reporting quality of randomized controlled trial abstracts: survey of leading general dental journals.

Science.gov (United States)

Hua, Fang; Deng, Lijia; Kau, Chung How; Jiang, Han; He, Hong; Walsh, Tanya

2015-09-01

The authors conducted a study to assess the reporting quality of randomized controlled trial (RCT) abstracts published in leading general dental journals, investigate any improvement after the release of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) for Abstracts guidelines, and identify factors associated with better reporting quality. The authors searched PubMed for RCTs published in 10 leading general dental journals during the periods from 2005 to 2007 (pre-CONSORT period) and 2010 to 2012 (post-CONSORT period). The authors evaluated and scored the reporting quality of included abstracts by using the original 16-item CONSORT for Abstracts checklist. The authors used risk ratios and the t test to compare the adequate reporting rate of each item and the overall quality in the 2 periods. The authors used univariate and multivariate regressions to identify predictors of better reporting quality. The authors included and evaluated 276 RCT abstracts. Investigators reported significantly more checklist items during the post-CONSORT period (mean [standard deviation {SD}], 4.53 [1.69]) than during the pre-CONSORT period (mean [SD], 3.87 [1.10]; mean difference, -0.66 [95% confidence interval, -0.99 to -0.33]; P 80%). In contrast, the authors saw sufficient reporting of randomization, recruitment, outcome in the results section, and funding in none of the pre-CONSORT abstracts and less than 2% of the post-CONSORT abstracts. On the basis of the multivariate analysis, a higher impact factor (P general dental journals has improved significantly, but there is still room for improvement. Joint efforts by authors, reviewers, journal editors, and other stakeholders to improve the reporting of dental RCT abstracts are needed. Copyright © 2015 American Dental Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Way of Policy Bricolage or Translation: The Case of Taiwan's Higher Education Reform of Quality Assurance

Science.gov (United States)

Hsieh, Chuo-Chun

2016-01-01

This paper focuses on the process and mechanism of higher education policy change related to quality assurance in a globalized world. In particular, the purpose of the study was to identify the impact of globalization on domestic policy change in Taiwan, characterized as a peripheral country. Taiwan's experience in terms of developing a national…

Racism, Equity, and Quality of Education for International Students in South Korean Higher Education Institutes

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Jin-Hee KIM

2016-01-01

This study aims to understand equity issues of international students' learning in Korean higher education institutions by engaging with the issue of racism and identifies how international students in Korea reshape their learning trajectory and how we could provide equitable and quality education for international students.Espousing a qualitative case study design,six students from different background were interviewed to examine features of perceived institutional racism based on their learning experience in Korea.Major findings showed that internationalization has not been fulfilled in terms of engaging with international students although Korean government and higher education institutions have developed relevant policy to attract international students.This study indicates that Korean universities need to reconstruct their social,cultural,and institutional systems to embrace equity,diversity and inclusiveness to empower international students' capacity.

N-acetylcysteine for major mental disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, W; Zhang, Q-E; Cai, D-B; Yang, X-H; Qiu, Y; Ungvari, G S; Ng, C H; Berk, M; Ning, Y-P; Xiang, Y-T

2018-05-01

This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examined the efficacy and safety of adjunctive N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an antioxidant drug, in treating major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. The PubMed, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, CNKI, CBM, and WanFang databases were independently searched and screened by two researchers. Standardized mean differences (SMDs), risk ratios, and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed. Six RCTs (n = 701) of NAC for schizophrenia (three RCTs, n = 307), bipolar disorder (two RCTs, n = 125), and MDD (one RCT, n = 269) were identified and analyzed as separate groups. Adjunctive NAC significantly improved total psychopathology (SMD = -0.74, 95% CI: -1.43, -0.06; I 2 = 84%, P = 0.03) in schizophrenia, but it had no significant effect on depressive and manic symptoms as assessed by the Young Mania Rating Scale in bipolar disorder and only a small effect on major depressive symptoms. Adverse drug reactions to NAC and discontinuation rates between the NAC and control groups were similar across the three disorders. Adjunctive NAC appears to be a safe treatment that has efficacy for schizophrenia, but not for bipolar disorder or MDD. Further higher quality RCTs are warranted to determine the role of adjunctive NAC in the treatment of major psychiatric disorders. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Quality Assurance Management in Private Higher Education Institutions in Ghana. A Case Study of All Nations University College, Koforidua.

OpenAIRE

Tetteh, Abigail

2014-01-01

The increasing rate of private higher education institutions in Ghana has called for the need to research into the quality management methods for their credibility. The government is giving out less funding and thus losing steering capacity. Public universities are unable to provide placements for all qualifying students in the institutions and therefore private universities have come to the aid of the public universities. The aim of the research is to find out the quality management methods ...

Effect of psychological therapy on disease activity, psychological comorbidity, and quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Gracie, David J; Irvine, Andrew J; Sood, Ruchit; Mikocka-Walus, Antonina; Hamlin, P John; Ford, Alexander C

2017-03-01

Inflammatory bowel disease is associated with psychological comorbidity and impaired quality of life. Psychological comorbidity could affect the natural history of inflammatory bowel disease. Psychological therapies might therefore have beneficial effects on disease activity, mood, and quality of life in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. We did a systematic review and meta-analysis examining these issues. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, Embase Classic, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for articles published between 1947 and Sept 22, 2016. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) recruiting patients with inflammatory bowel disease aged at least 16 years that compared psychological therapy with a control intervention or usual treatment were eligible. We pooled dichotomous data to obtain relative risks of induction of remission in active disease or prevention of relapse of quiescent disease, with 95% CIs. We pooled continuous data to estimate standardised mean differences in disease activity indices, anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and quality-of-life scores in patients dichotomised into those with clinically active or quiescent disease, with 95% CIs. We extracted data from published reports and contacted the original investigators of studies for which the required data were not available. We pooled all data using a random-effects model. The search identified 1824 studies, with 14 RCTs of 1196 patients eligible for inclusion. The relative risk of relapse of quiescent inflammatory bowel disease with psychological therapy versus control was 0·98 (95% CI 0·77-1·24; p=0·87; I 2 =50%; six trials; 518 patients). We observed a significant difference in depression scores (standardised mean difference -0·17 [-0·33 to -0·01]; p=0·04; I 2 =0%; seven trials; 605 patients) and quality of life (0·30 [0·07-0·52]; p=0·01; I 2 =42%; nine trials; 578 patients) with psychological therapy

Identifying Predictors of Student Satisfaction and Student Motivation in the Framework of Assuring Quality in the Delivery of Higher Education Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yulia Stukalina

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, the quality of educational services provided by a university is a crucial aspect of the education managers’ strategy in the customer-driven education context, quality assurance in education being an essential issue to be promoted in European higher education institutions. Students’ evaluation of the educational services (that is consumer-oriented assessment can be regarded as one of the most significant educational management tools used for stimulating quality enhancement in a university. It is vital for supporting decision-making process. A special emphasis may be put on monitoring student satisfaction with the educational services and student motivation toward studies. Understanding the central factors that are supposed to influence and predict student satisfaction and student motivation may provide education managers with best possible solutions to improve quality of the educational services in a higher education institution. This paper presents the results of an empirical study performed in Riga Technical University. The study was aimed at identifying the basic determinants (predictors of student satisfaction and motivation in the framework of the ESP (English for Specific Purposes course.

The Effectiveness of Internet Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (iCBT) for Depression in Primary Care: A Quality Assurance Study

OpenAIRE

Williams, Alishia D; Andrews, Gavin

2013-01-01

BACKGROUND: Depression is a common, recurrent, and debilitating problem and Internet delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (iCBT) could offer one solution. There are at least 25 controlled trials that demonstrate the efficacy of iCBT. The aim of the current paper was to evaluate the effectiveness of an iCBT Program in primary care that had been demonstrated to be efficacious in two randomized controlled trials (RCTs). METHOD: Quality assurance data from 359 patients prescribed the Sadness Pro...

Antifibrinolytics for heavy menstrual bleeding.

Science.gov (United States)

Bryant-Smith, Alison C; Lethaby, Anne; Farquhar, Cindy; Hickey, Martha

2018-04-15

Heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) is an important physical and social problem for women. Oral treatment for HMB includes antifibrinolytic drugs, which are designed to reduce bleeding by inhibiting clot-dissolving enzymes in the endometrium.Historically, there has been some concern that using the antifibrinolytic tranexamic acid (TXA) for HMB may increase the risk of venous thromboembolic disease. This is an umbrella term for deep venous thrombosis (blood clots in the blood vessels in the legs) and pulmonary emboli (blood clots in the blood vessels in the lungs). To determine the effectiveness and safety of antifibrinolytic medications as a treatment for heavy menstrual bleeding. We searched the Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility (CGF) Group trials register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and two trials registers in November 2017, together with reference checking and contact with study authors and experts in the field. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing antifibrinolytic agents versus placebo, no treatment or other medical treatment in women of reproductive age with HMB. Twelve studies utilised TXA and one utilised a prodrug of TXA (Kabi). We used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. The primary review outcomes were menstrual blood loss (MBL), improvement in HMB, and thromboembolic events. We included 13 RCTs (1312 participants analysed). The evidence was very low to moderate quality: the main limitations were risk of bias (associated with lack of blinding, and poor reporting of study methods), imprecision and inconsistency.Antifibrinolytics (TXA or Kabi) versus no treatment or placeboWhen compared with a placebo, antifibrinolytics were associated with reduced mean blood loss (MD -53.20 mL per cycle, 95% CI -62.70 to -43.70; I² = 8%; 4 RCTs, participants = 565; moderate-quality evidence) and higher rates of improvement (RR 3.34, 95% CI 1.84 to 6.09; 3 RCTS, participants = 271; moderate-quality evidence). This suggests that

Making Sense of Quality Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in Ethiopia: Unfolding Existing Realities for Future Promises

Science.gov (United States)

Tadesse, Tefera; Manathynga, Catherine E.; Gillies, Robyn M.

2018-01-01

Current approaches for assessing the quality of teaching and learning in higher education focus solely on compliance and accountability, and use quantitative measures that serve as indicators of institutional effectiveness and efficiency, yet whether such approaches have linked to instructional activities or students learning in universities are…

Cluster Randomised Trials in Cochrane Reviews: Evaluation of Methodological and Reporting Practice.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marty Richardson

Full Text Available Systematic reviews can include cluster-randomised controlled trials (C-RCTs, which require different analysis compared with standard individual-randomised controlled trials. However, it is not known whether review authors follow the methodological and reporting guidance when including these trials. The aim of this study was to assess the methodological and reporting practice of Cochrane reviews that included C-RCTs against criteria developed from existing guidance.Criteria were developed, based on methodological literature and personal experience supervising review production and quality. Criteria were grouped into four themes: identifying, reporting, assessing risk of bias, and analysing C-RCTs. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was searched (2nd December 2013, and the 50 most recent reviews that included C-RCTs were retrieved. Each review was then assessed using the criteria.The 50 reviews we identified were published by 26 Cochrane Review Groups between June 2013 and November 2013. For identifying C-RCTs, only 56% identified that C-RCTs were eligible for inclusion in the review in the eligibility criteria. For reporting C-RCTs, only eight (24% of the 33 reviews reported the method of cluster adjustment for their included C-RCTs. For assessing risk of bias, only one review assessed all five C-RCT-specific risk-of-bias criteria. For analysing C-RCTs, of the 27 reviews that presented unadjusted data, only nine (33% provided a warning that confidence intervals may be artificially narrow. Of the 34 reviews that reported data from unadjusted C-RCTs, only 13 (38% excluded the unadjusted results from the meta-analyses.The methodological and reporting practices in Cochrane reviews incorporating C-RCTs could be greatly improved, particularly with regard to analyses. Criteria developed as part of the current study could be used by review authors or editors to identify errors and improve the quality of published systematic reviews incorporating

Higher Dietary Cost Is Associated with Higher Diet Quality: A Cross-Sectional Study among Selected Malaysian Adults

OpenAIRE

Ibnteesam Pondor; Wan Ying Gan; Geeta Appannah

2017-01-01

Food price is a determining factor of food choices; however its relationship with diet quality is unclear in Malaysia. This study aimed to examine socio-economic characteristics and daily dietary cost (DDC) in relation to diet quality in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Dietary intake was assessed using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and diet quality was estimated using a Malaysian Healthy Eating Index (M-HEI). DDC in Malaysian Ringgit (RM) was calculated from dietary intake and nationa...

Chinese patent medicines for the treatment of the common cold: a systematic review of randomized clinical trials.

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Chen, Wei; Liu, Bo; Wang, Li-qiong; Ren, Jun; Liu, Jian-ping

2014-07-30

Many Chinese patent medicines (CPMs) have been authorized by the Chinese State of Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of the common cold. A number of clinical trials have been conducted and published. However, there is no systematic review or meta-analysis on their efficacy and safety for the common cold to justify their clinical use. We searched CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, SinoMed, CNKI, VIP, China Important Conference Papers Database, China Dissertation Database, and online clinical trial registry websites for published and unpublished randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of CPMs for the common cold till 31 March 2013. Revman 5.2 software was used for data analysis with effect estimate presented as relative risk (RR) and mean difference (MD) with a 95% confidence interval (CI). A total of five RCTs were identified. All of the RCTs were of high risk of bias with flawed study design and poor methodological quality. All RCTs included children aged between 6 months to 14 years. Results of individual trials showed that Shuanghuanglian oral liquid (RR 4.00; 95% CI: 2.26 to 7.08), and Xiaoer Resuqing oral liquid (RR 1.43; 95% CI: 1.15 to 1.77) had higher cure rates compared with antivirus drugs. Most of the trials did not report adverse events, and the safety of CPMs was still uncertain. Some CPMs showed a potential positive effect for the common cold on cure rate. However, due to the poor methodology quality and the defects in the clinical design of the included RCTs, such as the lack of placebo controlled trials, the inappropriate comparison intervention and outcome measurement, the confirmative conclusions on the beneficial effect of CPMs for the common cold could not be drawn.

Quality management in higher education between desiderate and reality

OpenAIRE

Turturean, Monica

2007-01-01

The universities have to assure the highest level of quality management, to help teachers and students to acquire the European knowledge. The universities must be encouraged to develop better for the promotion of academic and civic values. However, the reality is often quite different: we find that the phrase "quality management" is understood differently, having different connotations ,depending on the beliefs and values of the institutional managers, but also depending on the financial reso...

Supplementary effects of higher levels of various disaccharides on processing yield, quality properties and sensory attributes of Chinese - style pork jerky.

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Chen, Chih-Ming; Lin, Hsien-Tang

2017-12-01

This study evaluated the supplementary effect of higher concentrations of various disaccharides on processing yield, major physicochemical properties, and sensory attributes of Chinese-style pork jerky (CSPJ). CSPJ samples were prepared by marinating sliced ham (4 mm) with three dissaccharides, including sucrose, lactose, and maltose, at 0%, 15%, 18%, 21%, and 24%. Subsequently, the CSPJ samples were dried and roasted. The moisture content, water activity, crude protein, moisture-to-protein ratio, pH, processing yield, shear force, color, and sensory attributes of the CSPJ samples were evaluated. The quality characteristics of CSPJ samples prepared with sucrose were more acceptable. By contrast, CSPJ samples prepared with lactose showed the lowest scores. However, the processing yield and moisture content were the highest for CSPJ samples prepared with lactose, which may be associated with improved benefits for cost reduction. Furthermore, sucrose and lactose supplementation resulted in contrasting quality characteristics; for example, CSPJ samples with sucrose and maltose supplementation had higher sensory scores for color than samples with lactose supplementation. Additionally, most quality characteristics of CSPJ samples with sucrose supplementation contrasted with those of the samples with lactose supplementation; for example, the samples with sucrose supplementation had higher scores for sensory attributes than those with lactose supplementation. Sucrose supplementation up to 21% to 24% was associated with the highest overall acceptability scores (5.19 to 5.80), enhanced quality characteristics, increased processing yield, and reduced production cost.

Supplementary effects of higher levels of various disaccharides on processing yield, quality properties and sensory attributes of Chinese - style pork jerky

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Chih-Ming Chen

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Objective This study evaluated the supplementary effect of higher concentrations of various disaccharides on processing yield, major physicochemical properties, and sensory attributes of Chinese-style pork jerky (CSPJ. Methods CSPJ samples were prepared by marinating sliced ham (4 mm with three dissaccharides, including sucrose, lactose, and maltose, at 0%, 15%, 18%, 21%, and 24%. Subsequently, the CSPJ samples were dried and roasted. The moisture content, water activity, crude protein, moisture-to-protein ratio, pH, processing yield, shear force, color, and sensory attributes of the CSPJ samples were evaluated. Results The quality characteristics of CSPJ samples prepared with sucrose were more acceptable. By contrast, CSPJ samples prepared with lactose showed the lowest scores. However, the processing yield and moisture content were the highest for CSPJ samples prepared with lactose, which may be associated with improved benefits for cost reduction. Furthermore, sucrose and lactose supplementation resulted in contrasting quality characteristics; for example, CSPJ samples with sucrose and maltose supplementation had higher sensory scores for color than samples with lactose supplementation. Additionally, most quality characteristics of CSPJ samples with sucrose supplementation contrasted with those of the samples with lactose supplementation; for example, the samples with sucrose supplementation had higher scores for sensory attributes than those with lactose supplementation. Conclusion Sucrose supplementation up to 21% to 24% was associated with the highest overall acceptability scores (5.19 to 5.80, enhanced quality characteristics, increased processing yield, and reduced production cost.

Higher cortisol is associated with poorer executive functioning in preschool children: The role of parenting stress, parent coping and quality of daycare

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Wagner, Shannon L.; Cepeda, Ivan; Krieger, Dena; Maggi, Stefania; D’Angiulli, Amedeo; Weinberg, Joanne; Grunau, Ruth E.

2016-01-01

Child executive functions (cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, working memory) are key to success in school. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, is known to affect cognition; however, there is limited information about how child cortisol levels, parenting factors and child care context relate to executive functions in young children. The aim of this study was to examine relationships between child cortisol, parenting stress, parent coping, and daycare quality in relation to executive functions in children aged 3–5 years. We hypothesized that (1) poorer executive functioning would be related to higher child cortisol and higher parenting stress, and (2) positive daycare quality and positive parent coping style would buffer the effects of child cortisol and parenting stress on executive functions. A total of 101 children (53 girls, 48 boys, mean age 4.24 years ±0.74) with complete data on all measures were included. Three saliva samples to measure cortisol were collected at the child’s daycare/preschool in one morning. Parents completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function – Preschool Version (BRIEF-P), Parenting Stress Index (PSI), and Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ). The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale – Revised (ECERS-R) was used to measure the quality of daycare. It was found that children with poorer executive functioning had higher levels of salivary cortisol, and their parents reported higher parenting stress. However, parent coping style and quality of daycare did not modulate these relationships. Identifying ways to promote child executive functioning is an important direction for improving school readiness. PMID:26335047

The relationship between external and internal validity of randomized controlled trials: A sample of hypertension trials from China.

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Zhang, Xin; Wu, Yuxia; Ren, Pengwei; Liu, Xueting; Kang, Deying

2015-10-30

To explore the relationship between the external validity and the internal validity of hypertension RCTs conducted in China. Comprehensive literature searches were performed in Medline, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CCTR), CBMdisc (Chinese biomedical literature database), CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure/China Academic Journals Full-text Database) and VIP (Chinese scientific journals database) as well as advanced search strategies were used to locate hypertension RCTs. The risk of bias in RCTs was assessed by a modified scale, Jadad scale respectively, and then studies with 3 or more grading scores were included for the purpose of evaluating of external validity. A data extract form including 4 domains and 25 items was used to explore relationship of the external validity and the internal validity. Statistic analyses were performed by using SPSS software, version 21.0 (SPSS, Chicago, IL). 226 hypertension RCTs were included for final analysis. RCTs conducted in university affiliated hospitals (P internal validity. Multi-center studies (median = 4.0, IQR = 2.0) were scored higher internal validity score than single-center studies (median = 3.0, IQR = 1.0) (P internal validity (P = 0.004). Multivariate regression indicated sample size, industry-funding, quality of life (QOL) taken as measure and the university affiliated hospital as trial setting had statistical significance (P external validity of RCTs do associate with the internal validity, that do not stand in an easy relationship to each other. Regarding the poor reporting, other possible links between two variables need to trace in the future methodological researches.

The research gap in chronic paediatric pain: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

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Boulkedid, R; Abdou, A Y; Desselas, E; Monégat, M; de Leeuw, T G; Avez-Couturier, J; Dugue, S; Mareau, C; Charron, B; Alberti, C; Kaguelidou, F

2018-02-01

Chronic pain is associated with significant functional and social impairment. The objective of this review was to assess the characteristics and quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating pain management interventions in children and adolescents with chronic pain. We performed a systematic search of PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library up to July 2017. We included RCTs that involved children and adolescents (3 months-18 years) and evaluated the use of pharmacological or non-pharmacological intervention(s) in the context of pain persisting or re-occurring for more than 3 months. Methodological quality was evaluated using the Cochrane Risk of Bias (ROB) Tool. A total of 58 RCTs were identified and numbers steadily increased over time. The majority were conducted in single hospital institutions, with no information on study funding. Median sample size was 47.5 participants (Q1,Q3: 32, 70). Forty-five percent of RCTs included both adults and children and the median of the mean ages at inclusion was 12.9 years (Q1,Q3: 11, 15). Testing of non-pharmacological interventions was predominant and only 5 RCTs evaluated analgesics or co-analgesics. Abdominal pain, headache/migraine and musculoskeletal pain were the most common types of chronic pain among participants. Methodological quality was poor with 90% of RCTs presenting a high or unclear ROB. Evaluation of analgesics targeting chronic pain relief in children and adolescents through RCTs is marginal. Infants and children with long-lasting painful conditions are insufficiently represented in RCTs. We discuss possible research constraints and challenges as well as methodologies to circumvent them. There is a substantial research gap regarding analgesic interventions for children and adolescents with chronic pain. Most clinical trials in the field focus on the evaluation of non-pharmacological interventions and are of low methodological quality. There is also a specific lack of trials involving infants

Acupuncture and moxibustion for lateral elbow pain: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

Background Acupuncture and moxibustion have widely been used to treat lateral elbow pain (LEP). A comprehensive systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) including both English and Chinese databases was conducted to assess the efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of LEP. Methods Revised STRICTA (2010) criteria were used to appraise the acupuncture procedures, the Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the studies. A total of 19 RCTs that compared acupuncture and/or moxibustion with sham acupuncture, another form of acupuncture, or conventional treatment were included. Results All studies had at least one domain rated as high risk or uncertain risk of bias in the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Results from three RCTs of moderate quality showed that acupuncture was more effective than sham acupuncture. Results from 10 RCTs of mostly low quality showed that acupuncture or moxibustion was superior or equal to conventional treatment, such as local anesthetic injection, local steroid injection, non-steroidal anti- inflammatory drugs, or ultrasound. There were six low quality RCTs that compared acupuncture and moxibustion combined with manual acupuncture alone, and all showed that acupuncture and moxibustion combined was superior to manual acupuncture alone. Conclusion Moderate quality studies suggest that acupuncture is more effective than sham acupuncture. Interpretations of findings regarding acupuncture vs. conventional treatment, and acupuncture and moxibustion combined vs. manual acupuncture alone are limited by the methodological qualities of these studies. Future studies with improved methodological design are warranted to confirm the efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion for LEP. PMID:24726029

The Impact Discounts and the Price-Quality Effect Have on the Choice of an Institution of Higher Education.

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Quigley, Charles J., Jr.; Bingham, Frank G., Jr.; Notarantonio, Elaine M.; Murray, Keith

1999-01-01

A survey of 303 potential college students and their parents found that high price and low price institutions are evaluated higher on quality attributes than are moderately priced institutions. Further, discounts (such as financial aid) were found to have little effect on the attendance decision. Implications for the pricing strategies used by…

Higher Education Evaluation in Germany

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Schmidt, Bernhard; von Hippel, Aiga; Tippelt, Rudolf

2010-01-01

Quality assurance in the area of higher education has become a central issue among both politicians and scientists. University evaluations which refer to both research and teaching are an important element of quality assurance. The present contribution starts out by determining the different components of quality at universities according to…

Quality of randomised controlled trials in medical education reported between 2012 and 2013

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tolsgaard, Martin G; Ku, Cheryl; Woods, Nicole N

2014-01-01

of experienced librarians to search online databases for key terms. All of the identified RCTs are screened based on their titles and abstracts individually by the authors and then compared in pairs to assess agreement. Data are extracted from the included RCTs by independently scoring each RCT using a data...

Improving Quality Higher Education in Nigeria: The Roles of Stakeholders

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Asiyai, Romina Ifeoma

2015-01-01

This paper discusses the roles of stakeholders in improving quality of university education in Nigeria. Internal and external stakeholders are identified and the various roles they could play in improving the quality of university education are discussed. The paper contends that continuous and holistic improvement in university education system…

Rethinking Teacher Quality at the Higher Education Level: Need For ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Quality has been a controversial issue in education generally and Business Education in particular. Business Education is aimed at equipping the recipients with the relevant knowledge, skills, attitude and values that will enable them function effectively as citizens. The quality of Business Teachers is paramount to the ...

APPRAISAL OF STUDENT RATING AS A MEASURE TO MANAGE THE QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: AN INSTITUTIONAL STUDY USING SIX SIGMA MODEL APPROACH

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Arun Vijay

2013-12-01

Full Text Available Students' rating of teaching is one of the most widely accepted methods of measuring the quality in Higher Education worldwide. The overall experience gained by the students during their academic journey in their respective college is a key factor to determine the Institutional Quality. This study was conducted among the Physical Therapy students with an objective to capture the overall experience related to various aspects of their Academic environment including teaching and learning process adopted in their college. To facilitate that, a unique questionnaire called,"Academic Environment Evaluation Questionnaire (AEEQ was developed covering all the important teaching elements of the Higher Education Institutions. The students' opinion was captured and analyzed through six sigma analytical tool using Poisson distribution model. From the non-conformance level captured through the responses from the students about the various categories of teaching and learning elements, the corresponding Sigma rating for each teaching element was measured. Accordingly, a six point Quality rating system was developed customizing to each sigma values. This study brings a new, innovative student driven Quality rating system for the Higher Education Institutions in India.

The association of funding source on effect size in randomized controlled trials: 2013-2015 - a cross-sectional survey and meta-analysis.

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Falk Delgado, Alberto; Falk Delgado, Anna

2017-03-14

Trials financed by for-profit organizations have been associated with favorable outcomes of new treatments, although the effect size of funding source impact on outcome is unknown. The aim of this study was to estimate the effect size for a favorable outcome in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), stratified by funding source, that have been published in general medical journals. Parallel-group RCTs published in The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA between 2013 and 2015 were identified. RCTs with binary primary endpoints were included. The primary outcome was the OR of patients' having a favorable outcome in the intervention group compared with the control group. The OR of a favorable outcome in each trial was calculated by the number of positive events that occurred in the intervention and control groups. A meta-analytic technique with random effects model was used to calculate summary OR. Data were stratified by funding source as for-profit, mixed, and nonprofit. Prespecified sensitivity, subgroup, and metaregression analyses were performed. Five hundred nine trials were included. The OR for a favorable outcome in for-profit-funded RCTs was 1.92 (95% CI 1.72-2.14), which was higher than mixed source-funded RCTs (OR 1.34, 95% CI 1.25-1.43) and nonprofit-funded RCTs (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.26-1.39). The OR for a favorable outcome was higher for both clinical and surrogate endpoints in for-profit-funded trials than in RCTs with other funding sources. Excluding drug trials lowered the OR for a favorable outcome in for-profit-funded RCTs. The OR for a favorable surrogate outcome in drug trials was higher in for-profit-funded trials than in nonprofit-funded trials. For-profit-funded RCTs have a higher OR for a favorable outcome than nonprofit- and mixed source-funded RCTs. This difference is associated mainly with the use of surrogate endpoints in for-profit-financed drug trials.

Does preoperative physiotherapy improve postoperative, patient-based outcomes in older adults who have undergone total knee arthroplasty? A systematic review.

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Chesham, Ross Alexander; Shanmugam, Sivaramkumar

2017-01-01

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of disability in older adults (≥60) in the UK. If nonsurgical management fails and if OA severity becomes too great, knee arthroplasty is a preferred treatment choice. Preoperative physiotherapy is often offered as part of rehabilitation to improve postoperative patient-based outcomes. Systematically review whether preoperative physiotherapy improves postoperative, patient-based outcomes in older adults who have undergone total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and compare study interventions to best-practice guidelines. A literature search of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), published April 2004-April 2014, was performed across six databases. Individual studies were evaluated for quality using the PEDro Scale. Ten RCTs met the full inclusion/exclusion criteria. RCTs compared control groups versus: preoperative exercise (n = 5); combined exercise and education (n = 2); combined exercise and acupuncture (n = 1); neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES; n = 1); and acupuncture versus exercise (n = 1). RCTs recorded many patient-based outcomes including knee strength, ambulation, and pain. Minimal evidence is presented that preoperative physiotherapy is more effective than no physiotherapy or usual care. PEDro Scale and critical appraisal highlighted substantial methodological quality issues within the RCTs. There is insufficient quality evidence to support the efficacy of preoperative physiotherapy in older adults who undergo total knee arthroplasty.

Combined diet and exercise interventions for preventing gestational diabetes mellitus.

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Shepherd, Emily; Gomersall, Judith C; Tieu, Joanna; Han, Shanshan; Crowther, Caroline A; Middleton, Philippa

2017-11-13

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with a wide range of adverse health consequences for women and their infants in the short and long term. With an increasing prevalence of GDM worldwide, there is an urgent need to assess strategies for GDM prevention, such as combined diet and exercise interventions. This is an update of a Cochrane review that was first published in 2015. To assess the effects of diet interventions in combination with exercise interventions for pregnant women for preventing GDM, and associated adverse health consequences for the mother and her infant/child. We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group's Trials Register (27 November 2016) and reference lists of retrieved studies. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster-RCTs, comparing combined diet and exercise interventions with no intervention (i.e. standard care), that reported on GDM diagnosis as an outcome. Quasi-RCTs were excluded. Cross-over trials were not eligible for inclusion. We planned to include RCTs comparing two or more different diet/exercise interventions, however none were identified. Two review authors independently assessed study eligibility, extracted data, assessed the risk of bias of the included trials and assessed quality of evidence for selected maternal and infant/child outcomes using the GRADE approach. We checked data for accuracy. In this update, we included 23 RCTs (involving 8918 women and 8709 infants) that compared combined diet and exercise interventions with no intervention (standard care). The studies varied in the diet and exercise programs evaluated and health outcomes reported. None reported receiving funding from a drug manufacturer or agency with interests in the results. Overall risk of bias was judged to be unclear due to the lack of methodological detail reported. Most studies were undertaken in high-income countries.For our primary review outcomes, there was a possible reduced risk of GDM in the diet and

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Mindfulness-Based (Baduanjin Exercise for Alleviating Musculoskeletal Pain and Improving Sleep Quality in People with Chronic Diseases

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Liye Zou

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Objective: we performed the first systematic review with meta-analyses of the existing studies that examined mindfulness-based Baduanjin exercise for its therapeutic effects for individuals with musculoskeletal pain or insomnia. Methods: Both English- (PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier, and Google Scholar and Chinese-language (CNKI and Wangfang electronic databases were used to search relevant articles. We used a modified PEDro scale to evaluate risk of bias across studies selected. All eligible RCTS were considered for meta-analysis. The standardized mean difference was calculated for the pooled effects to determine the magnitude of the Baduanjin intervention effect. For the moderator analysis, we performed subgroup meta-analysis for categorical variables and meta-regression for continuous variables. Results: The aggregated result has shown a significant benefit in favour of Baduanjin at alleviating musculoskeletal pain (SMD = −0.88, 95% CI −1.02 to −0.74, p < 0.001, I2 = 10.29% and improving overall sleep quality (SMD = −0.48, 95% CI −0.95 to −0.01, p = 004, I2 = 84.42%. Conclusions: Mindfulness-based Baduanjin exercise may be effective for alleviating musculoskeletal pain and improving overall sleep quality in people with chronic illness. Large, well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm these findings.

Effect of self-acupressure for symptom management: a systematic review.

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Song, Hyun Jin; Seo, Hyun-Ju; Lee, Heeyoung; Son, Heejeong; Choi, Sun Mi; Lee, Sanghun

2015-02-01

To assess the efficacy and safety of self-administered acupressure to alleviate symptoms of various health problems, including allergic disease, cancer, respiratory disease, dysmenorrhea, perceived stress, insomnia, and sleep disturbances. We searched core, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese databases, including Ovid-MEDLINE, Ovid-EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), six representative electronic Korean medical databases, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Japan Science and Technology Information Aggregator (J-STAGE). We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-RCTs that examined disease-specific effects or symptom relief, adverse reactions, and quality-of-life (QOL) for self-administered acupressure. Data collection and assessment of the methodological quality of the included studies were conducted by two independent reviewers. Eight RCTs and two quasi-RCTs showed positive effects and safety of self-acupressure therapy in clinically diverse populations. Quality assessment revealed moderate quality for the RCTs, with 50% or more of the trials assessed as presenting a low risk of bias in seven domains. All of the selected 10 studies reported positive effects for primary outcomes of self-acupressure therapy for symptom management, including significant improvements in symptom scores in allergic disease, nausea and vomiting in cancer, symptom scores in respiratory disease, pain symptoms in dysmenorrhea, and stress/fatigue scores and sleep disturbances in healthy people. Our findings suggest that self-administered acupressure shows promise to alleviate the symptoms of various health problems. Therefore, further research with larger samples and methodologically well-designed RCTs is required to establish the efficacy of self-administered acupressure. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stakeholders and quality assurance in higher education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leisyte, Liudvika; Westerheijden, Donald F.; Eggins, Heather

2014-01-01

The various changes in post-bureaucratic organising, which are moving towards network approaches, coupled with the managerial agenda of corporate governance, have redefined the roles of various internal and external stakeholders in the governance of higher education institutions (Leisyte and Dee,

Considering the Marketing of Higher Education: The Role of Student Learning Gain as a Potential Indicator of Teaching Quality

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Polkinghorne, Martyn; Roushan, Gelareh; Taylor, Julia

2017-01-01

The marketization of higher education has ensured that students have become consumers. As a result, students are demanding increased levels of information regarding potential university courses so that they can make informed decisions regarding how best to invest their money, time and opportunity. A comparison of the teaching quality delivered on…

How informed is declared altruism in clinical trials? A qualitative interview study of patient decision-making about the QUEST trials (Quality of Life after Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction)

OpenAIRE

Bidad, Natalie; MacDonald, Lindsay; Winters, Zoë E; Edwards, Sarah J L; Emson, Marie; Griffin, Clare L.; Bliss, Judith; Horne, Rob

2016-01-01

Background: Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) often fail to recruit sufficient participants, despite altruism being cited as their motivation. Previous investigations of factors influencing participation decisions have been methodologically limited. This study evaluated how women weigh up different motivations after initially expressing altruism, and explored their understanding of a trial and its alternatives. The trial was the 'Quality of Life after Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction' (...

The Concepts of Quality, Quality Assurance and Quality Enhancement

Science.gov (United States)

Elassy, Noha

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to critically review and discuss different definitions of the concepts of quality, quality assurance (QA) and quality enhancement (QE) in higher education (HE) with presenting critical perspectives of the literature. Design/methodology/approach: The paper looks at literature concerns with the meaning of quality, QA and QE,…

Quality Assurance VS. Quality Culture into the Higher Education Services Sector. Points of Convergence to Performance

OpenAIRE

Popa Simona; Constantinescu Lucreþia Mariana; Ionescu Romaniþa Valentina

2013-01-01

Our paper focus to approch an analitical analysis between the quality assurance process and the organizational quality culture. The main but was to demonstrate that, the both process are providing together to Romanian universities performance.

Stopping randomized trials early for benefit: a protocol of the Study Of Trial Policy Of Interim Truncation-2 (STOPIT-2)

Science.gov (United States)

Briel, Matthias; Lane, Melanie; Montori, Victor M; Bassler, Dirk; Glasziou, Paul; Malaga, German; Akl, Elie A; Ferreira-Gonzalez, Ignacio; Alonso-Coello, Pablo; Urrutia, Gerard; Kunz, Regina; Culebro, Carolina Ruiz; da Silva, Suzana Alves; Flynn, David N; Elamin, Mohamed B; Strahm, Brigitte; Murad, M Hassan; Djulbegovic, Benjamin; Adhikari, Neill KJ; Mills, Edward J; Gwadry-Sridhar, Femida; Kirpalani, Haresh; Soares, Heloisa P; Elnour, Nisrin O Abu; You, John J; Karanicolas, Paul J; Bucher, Heiner C; Lampropulos, Julianna F; Nordmann, Alain J; Burns, Karen EA; Mulla, Sohail M; Raatz, Heike; Sood, Amit; Kaur, Jagdeep; Bankhead, Clare R; Mullan, Rebecca J; Nerenberg, Kara A; Vandvik, Per Olav; Coto-Yglesias, Fernando; Schünemann, Holger; Tuche, Fabio; Chrispim, Pedro Paulo M; Cook, Deborah J; Lutz, Kristina; Ribic, Christine M; Vale, Noah; Erwin, Patricia J; Perera, Rafael; Zhou, Qi; Heels-Ansdell, Diane; Ramsay, Tim; Walter, Stephen D; Guyatt, Gordon H

2009-01-01

Background Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) stopped early for benefit often receive great attention and affect clinical practice, but pose interpretational challenges for clinicians, researchers, and policy makers. Because the decision to stop the trial may arise from catching the treatment effect at a random high, truncated RCTs (tRCTs) may overestimate the true treatment effect. The Study Of Trial Policy Of Interim Truncation (STOPIT-1), which systematically reviewed the epidemiology and reporting quality of tRCTs, found that such trials are becoming more common, but that reporting of stopping rules and decisions were often deficient. Most importantly, treatment effects were often implausibly large and inversely related to the number of the events accrued. The aim of STOPIT-2 is to determine the magnitude and determinants of possible bias introduced by stopping RCTs early for benefit. Methods/Design We will use sensitive strategies to search for systematic reviews addressing the same clinical question as each of the tRCTs identified in STOPIT-1 and in a subsequent literature search. We will check all RCTs included in each systematic review to determine their similarity to the index tRCT in terms of participants, interventions, and outcome definition, and conduct new meta-analyses addressing the outcome that led to early termination of the tRCT. For each pair of tRCT and systematic review of corresponding non-tRCTs we will estimate the ratio of relative risks, and hence estimate the degree of bias. We will use hierarchical multivariable regression to determine the factors associated with the magnitude of this ratio. Factors explored will include the presence and quality of a stopping rule, the methodological quality of the trials, and the number of total events that had occurred at the time of truncation. Finally, we will evaluate whether Bayesian methods using conservative informative priors to "regress to the mean" overoptimistic tRCTs can correct observed

Stopping randomized trials early for benefit: a protocol of the Study Of Trial Policy Of Interim Truncation-2 (STOPIT-2

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mullan Rebecca J

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Randomized clinical trials (RCTs stopped early for benefit often receive great attention and affect clinical practice, but pose interpretational challenges for clinicians, researchers, and policy makers. Because the decision to stop the trial may arise from catching the treatment effect at a random high, truncated RCTs (tRCTs may overestimate the true treatment effect. The Study Of Trial Policy Of Interim Truncation (STOPIT-1, which systematically reviewed the epidemiology and reporting quality of tRCTs, found that such trials are becoming more common, but that reporting of stopping rules and decisions were often deficient. Most importantly, treatment effects were often implausibly large and inversely related to the number of the events accrued. The aim of STOPIT-2 is to determine the magnitude and determinants of possible bias introduced by stopping RCTs early for benefit. Methods/Design We will use sensitive strategies to search for systematic reviews addressing the same clinical question as each of the tRCTs identified in STOPIT-1 and in a subsequent literature search. We will check all RCTs included in each systematic review to determine their similarity to the index tRCT in terms of participants, interventions, and outcome definition, and conduct new meta-analyses addressing the outcome that led to early termination of the tRCT. For each pair of tRCT and systematic review of corresponding non-tRCTs we will estimate the ratio of relative risks, and hence estimate the degree of bias. We will use hierarchical multivariable regression to determine the factors associated with the magnitude of this ratio. Factors explored will include the presence and quality of a stopping rule, the methodological quality of the trials, and the number of total events that had occurred at the time of truncation. Finally, we will evaluate whether Bayesian methods using conservative informative priors to "regress to the mean" overoptimistic tRCTs

Investigation of continuous effect modifiers in a meta-analysis on higher versus lower PEEP in patients requiring mechanical ventilation--protocol of the ICEM study.

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Kasenda, Benjamin; Sauerbrei, Willi; Royston, Patrick; Briel, Matthias

2014-05-20

Categorizing an inherently continuous predictor in prognostic analyses raises several critical methodological issues: dependence of the statistical significance on the number and position of the chosen cut-point(s), loss of statistical power, and faulty interpretation of the results if a non-linear association is incorrectly assumed to be linear. This also applies to a therapeutic context where investigators of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are interested in interactions between treatment assignment and one or more continuous predictors. Our goal is to apply the multivariable fractional polynomial interaction (MFPI) approach to investigate interactions between continuous patient baseline variables and the allocated treatment in an individual patient data meta-analysis of three RCTs (N = 2,299) from the intensive care field. For each study, MFPI will provide a continuous treatment effect function. Functions from each of the three studies will be averaged by a novel meta-analysis approach for functions. We will plot treatment effect functions separately for each study and also the averaged function. The averaged function with a related confidence interval will provide a suitable basis to assess whether a continuous patient characteristic modifies the treatment comparison and may be relevant for clinical decision-making. The compared interventions will be a higher or lower positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) ventilation strategy in patients requiring mechanical ventilation. The continuous baseline variables body mass index, PaO2/FiO2, respiratory compliance, and oxygenation index will be the investigated potential effect modifiers. Clinical outcomes for this analysis will be in-hospital mortality, time to death, time to unassisted breathing, and pneumothorax. This project will be the first meta-analysis to combine continuous treatment effect functions derived by the MFPI procedure separately in each of several RCTs. Such an approach requires individual

Fuzzy Failure Analysis: A New Approach to Service Quality Analysis in Higher Education Institutions (Case Study: Vali-e-asr University of Rafsanjan-Iran)

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Takalo, Salim Karimi; Abadi, Ali Reza Naser Sadr; Vesal, Seyed Mahdi; Mirzaei, Amir; Nawaser, Khaled

2013-01-01

In recent years, concurrent with steep increase in the growth of higher education institutions, improving of educational service quality with an emphasis on students' satisfaction has become an important issue. The present study is going to use the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) in order to evaluate the quality of educational services in…

Service Quality in Higher Education--A Case Study of Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Science.gov (United States)

Alani, Farooq; Yaqoub, Yasir; Hamdan, Mahani

2015-01-01

No one doubts the value and importance of quality education, and quality assurance is one major driving force to achieve this. Measuring the performance of service quality of education services of Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), as part of the quality assessment, was assessed based on Parasuraman's five Servqual dimensions. The assessment was…

Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion versus posterolateral fusion in degenerative lumbar spondylosis

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Bin-Fei; Ge, Chao-Yuan; Zheng, Bo-Long; Hao, Ding-Jun

2016-01-01

Abstract Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) versus posterolateral fusion (PLF) in degenerative lumbar spondylosis. Methods: A systematic literature review was performed to obtain randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies (OSs) of TLIF and PLF for degenerative lumbar spondylosis. Trials performed before November 2015 were retrieved from the Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane library, and Chinese databases. Data extraction and quality evaluation of the trials were performed independently by 2 investigators. A meta-analysis was performed using STATA version 12.0. Results: Two RCTs and 5 OSs of 630 patients were included. Of these subjects, 325 were in the TLIF and 305 were in the PLF group. Results showed that TLIF did not increase the fusion rate based on RCTs (relative risk [RR] = 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.95–1.18; P = 0.321), but increased it based on OSs (RR = 1.14; 95% CI: 1.07–1.23; P = 0.000) and overall (RR = 1.11; 95% CI: 1.05–1.18; P = 0.001) as compared with PLF. TLIF was able to improve the clinical outcomes based on 1 RCT (RR = 1.33; 95% CI: 1.11–1.59, P = 0.002) and overall (RR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.07–1.33; P = 0.001), but not based on OSs (RR = 1.11; 95% CI: 0.97–1.27; P = 0.129) as compared with PLF. There were no differences between TLIF and PLF in terms of visual analogue scale, Oswestry Disability Index, reoperation, complications, duration of surgical procedure, blood loss, and hospitalization. Conclusions: In conclusion, evidence is not sufficient to support that TLIF provides higher fusion rate than PLF, and this poor evidence indicates that TLIF might improve only clinical outcomes. Higher quality, multicenter RCTs are needed to better define the role of TLIF and PLF. PMID:27749558

Transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion versus posterolateral fusion in degenerative lumbar spondylosis: A meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Bin-Fei; Ge, Chao-Yuan; Zheng, Bo-Long; Hao, Ding-Jun

2016-10-01

The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) versus posterolateral fusion (PLF) in degenerative lumbar spondylosis. A systematic literature review was performed to obtain randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies (OSs) of TLIF and PLF for degenerative lumbar spondylosis. Trials performed before November 2015 were retrieved from the Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane library, and Chinese databases. Data extraction and quality evaluation of the trials were performed independently by 2 investigators. A meta-analysis was performed using STATA version 12.0. Two RCTs and 5 OSs of 630 patients were included. Of these subjects, 325 were in the TLIF and 305 were in the PLF group. Results showed that TLIF did not increase the fusion rate based on RCTs (relative risk [RR] = 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.95-1.18; P = 0.321), but increased it based on OSs (RR = 1.14; 95% CI: 1.07-1.23; P = 0.000) and overall (RR = 1.11; 95% CI: 1.05-1.18; P = 0.001) as compared with PLF. TLIF was able to improve the clinical outcomes based on 1 RCT (RR = 1.33; 95% CI: 1.11-1.59, P = 0.002) and overall (RR = 1.19; 95% CI: 1.07-1.33; P = 0.001), but not based on OSs (RR = 1.11; 95% CI: 0.97-1.27; P = 0.129) as compared with PLF. There were no differences between TLIF and PLF in terms of visual analogue scale, Oswestry Disability Index, reoperation, complications, duration of surgical procedure, blood loss, and hospitalization. In conclusion, evidence is not sufficient to support that TLIF provides higher fusion rate than PLF, and this poor evidence indicates that TLIF might improve only clinical outcomes. Higher quality, multicenter RCTs are needed to better define the role of TLIF and PLF.

Effect of Low-Fat vs. Other Diet Interventions on Long-Term Weight Change in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OpenAIRE

Tobias, Deirdre K.; Chen, Mu; Manson, JoAnn E.; Ludwig, David S.; Willett, Walter; Hu, Frank B.

2015-01-01

Background: The effectiveness of low-fat diets for long-term weight loss has been debated for decades, with dozens of randomized trials (RCTs) and recent reviews giving mixed results. Methods: We conducted a random effects meta-analysis of RCTs to estimate the long-term effect of low-fat vs. higher fat dietary interventions on weight loss. Our search included RCTs conducted in adult populations reporting weight change outcomes at ≥1 year, comparing low-fat with higher fat interventions, publi...

Quality Evaluation of the Hungarian Higher Education Based on the Opinion of the "Customers": An Application at Budapest University of Technology and Economics

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Kovesi, Janos; Szabo, Tibor; Bota, Gabor

2004-01-01

Quality is the central element of the results of changes happening in Hungarian higher education, which is serving an ever-increasing number of students. Following the transition to capitalism, as the number of students greatly increases, the direct control of higher education by the government ceases, and especially because of the "mass…

External quality assurance agencies and excellence in higher education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Josep Grifoll

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The article presents briefly the complexity of the concept of “excellence” in higher education. Taking into account this reality, the fundamental question is how agencies can consider this complexity in building up criteria on excellence and the use of the concept “excellence” in their improvement strategies and accountability processes in the sector of higher education. Public-private nature of higher education and its growing internationalisation have significant impact on how excellence in education is described and promoted as a tool.

Quality Minus Junk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Asness, Clifford S.; Frazzini, Andrea; Heje Pedersen, Lasse

We define a quality security as one that has characteristics that, all-else-equal, an investor should be willing to pay a higher price for: stocks that are safe, profitable, growing, and well managed. High-quality stocks do have higher prices on average, but not by a very large margin. Perhaps....... The price of quality – i.e., how much investors pay extra for higher quality stocks – varies over time, reaching a low during the internet bubble. Further, a low price of quality predicts a high future return of QMJ. Finally, controlling for quality resurrects the otherwise moribund size effect....

The relationship between return on investment and quality of study methodology in workplace health promotion programs.

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Baxter, Siyan; Sanderson, Kristy; Venn, Alison J; Blizzard, C Leigh; Palmer, Andrew J

2014-01-01

To determine the relationship between return on investment (ROI) and quality of study methodology in workplace health promotion programs. Data were obtained through a systematic literature search of National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED), Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), Health Technology Database (HTA), Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) Registry, EconLit, PubMed, Embase, Wiley, and Scopus. Included were articles written in English or German reporting cost(s) and benefit(s) and single or multicomponent health promotion programs on working adults. Return-to-work and workplace injury prevention studies were excluded. Methodological quality was graded using British Medical Journal Economic Evaluation Working Party checklist. Economic outcomes were presented as ROI. ROI was calculated as ROI = (benefits - costs of program)/costs of program. Results were weighted by study size and combined using meta-analysis techniques. Sensitivity analysis was performed using two additional methodological quality checklists. The influences of quality score and important study characteristics on ROI were explored. Fifty-one studies (61 intervention arms) published between 1984 and 2012 included 261,901 participants and 122,242 controls from nine industry types across 12 countries. Methodological quality scores were highly correlated between checklists (r = .84-.93). Methodological quality improved over time. Overall weighted ROI [mean ± standard deviation (confidence interval)] was 1.38 ± 1.97 (1.38-1.39), which indicated a 138% return on investment. When accounting for methodological quality, an inverse relationship to ROI was found. High-quality studies (n = 18) had a smaller mean ROI, 0.26 ± 1.74 (.23-.30), compared to moderate (n = 16) 0.90 ± 1.25 (.90-.91) and low-quality (n = 27) 2.32 ± 2.14 (2.30-2.33) studies. Randomized control trials (RCTs) (n = 12) exhibited negative ROI, -0.22 ± 2.41(-.27 to -.16). Financial returns become

Deficiencies of effectiveness of intervention studies in veterinary medicine: a cross-sectional survey of ten leading veterinary and medical journals

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Meursinge Reynders, Reint

2016-01-01

The validity of studies that assess the effectiveness of an intervention (EoI) depends on variables such as the type of study design, the quality of their methodology, and the participants enrolled. Five leading veterinary journals and 5 leading human medical journals were hand-searched for EoI studies for the year 2013. We assessed (1) the prevalence of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) among EoI studies, (2) the type of participants enrolled, and (3) the methodological quality of the selected studies. Of 1707 eligible articles, 590 were EoI articles and 435 RCTs. Random allocation to the intervention was performed in 52% (114/219; 95%CI:45.2–58.8%) of veterinary EoI articles, against 87% (321/371; 82.5–89.7%) of human EoI articles (adjusted OR:9.2; 3.4–24.8). Veterinary RCTs were smaller (median: 26 animals versus 465 humans) and less likely to enroll real patients, compared with human RCTs (OR:331; 45–2441). Only 2% of the veterinary RCTs, versus 77% of the human RCTs, reported power calculations, primary outcomes, random sequence generation, allocation concealment and estimation methods. Currently, internal and external validity of veterinary EoI studies is limited compared to human medical ones. To address these issues, veterinary interventional research needs to improve its methodology, increase the number of published RCTs and enroll real clinical patients. PMID:26835187

Registry-based randomized controlled trials merged the strength of randomized controlled trails and observational studies and give rise to more pragmatic trials.

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Mathes, Tim; Buehn, Stefanie; Prengel, Peggy; Pieper, Dawid

2018-01-01

The objective of this study was to analyze the features of registry-based randomized trials (rRCTs). We systematically searched PubMed for rRCTs. Study selection was performed independently by two reviewers. We extracted all data in standardized tables and prepared descriptive summary statistics. The search resulted in 1,202 hits. We included 71 rRCTs. Most rRCTs were from Denmark and Sweden. Chronic conditions were considered in 82.2%. A preventive intervention was examined in 45.1%. The median of included patients was 2,000 (range: 69-246,079). Definition of the study population was mostly broad. Study procedures were regularly little standardized. The number of included and analyzed patients was the same in 82.1%. In half of the rRCTs, more than one registry was utilized. Various linkage techniques were used. In median, two outcomes were collected from the registry/ies. The median follow-up of the rRCTs was 5.3 years (range: 6 weeks to 27 years). Information on quality of registry data was reported in 11.3%. rRCTs can provide valid (randomization, low lost-to-follow-up rates, generalizable) patient important long-term comparative-effectiveness data for relative little effort. Researchers planning an RCT should always check whether existing registries can be used for data collection. Reporting on data quality must be improved for use in evidence synthesis. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects and moderators of exercise on quality of life and physical function in patients with cancer : An individual patient data meta-analysis of 34 RCTs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buffart, Laurien M; Kalter, Joeri; Sweegers, Maike G; Courneya, Kerry S; Newton, Robert U; Aaronson, Neil K; Jacobsen, Paul B; May, Anne M; Galvão, Daniel A; Chinapaw, Mai J; Steindorf, Karen; Irwin, Melinda L; Stuiver, Martijn M; Hayes, Sandi; Griffith, Kathleen A; Lucia, Alejandro; Mesters, Ilse; van Weert, Ellen; Knoop, Hans; Goedendorp, Martine M; Mutrie, Nanette; Daley, Amanda J; McConnachie, Alex; Bohus, Martin; Thorsen, Lene; Schulz, Karl-Heinz; Short, Camille E; James, Erica L; Plotnikoff, Ron C; Arbane, Gill; Schmidt, Martina E; Potthoff, Karin; van Beurden, Marc; Oldenburg, Hester S; Sonke, Gabe S; van Harten, Wim H; Garrod, Rachel; Schmitz, Kathryn H; Winters-Stone, Kerri M; Velthuis, Miranda J; Taaffe, Dennis R; van Mechelen, Willem; Kersten, Marie-José; Nollet, Frans; Wenzel, Jennifer; Wiskemann, Joachim; Verdonck-de Leeuw, Irma M; Brug, Johannes

This individual patient data meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effects of exercise on quality of life (QoL) and physical function (PF) in patients with cancer, and to identify moderator effects of demographic (age, sex, marital status, education), clinical (body mass index, cancer type, presence

Effects and moderators of exercise on quality of life and physical function in patients with cancer : An individual patient data meta-analysis of 34 RCTs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Buffart, Laurien M.; Kalter, Joeri; Sweegers, Maike G.; Courneya, Kerry S.; Newton, Robert U.; Aaronson, Neil K.; Jacobsen, Paul B.; May, Anne M.; Galvão, Daniel A.; Chinapaw, Mai J.; Steindorf, Karen; Irwin, Melinda L.; Stuiver, Martijn M.; Hayes, Sandi; Griffith, Kathleen A.; Lucia, Alejandro; Mesters, Ilse; van Weert, Ellen; Knoop, Hans; Goedendorp, Martine M.; Mutrie, Nanette; Daley, Amanda J.; McConnachie, Alex; Bohus, Martin; Thorsen, Lene; Schulz, Karl Heinz; Short, Camille E.; James, Erica L.; Plotnikoff, Ron C.; Arbane, Gill; Schmidt, Martina E.; Potthoff, Karin; van Beurden, Marc; Oldenburg, Hester S.; Sonke, Gabe S.; van Harten, Wim H.; Garrod, Rachel; Schmitz, Kathryn H.; Winters-Stone, Kerri M.; Velthuis, Miranda J.; Taaffe, Dennis R.; van Mechelen, Willem; Kersten, Marie José; Nollet, Frans; Wenzel, Jennifer; Wiskemann, Joachim; Verdonck-de Leeuw, Irma M.; Brug, Johannes

2017-01-01

This individual patient data meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effects of exercise on quality of life (QoL) and physical function (PF) in patients with cancer, and to identify moderator effects of demographic (age, sex, marital status, education), clinical (body mass index, cancer type, presence

The placebo effect and its determinants in fibromyalgia: meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xi; Zou, Kun; Abdullah, Natasya; Whiteside, Nicola; Sarmanova, Aliya; Doherty, Michael; Zhang, Weiya

2017-07-01

The aims of this study were to determine whether placebo treatment in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is effective for fibromyalgia and to identify possible determinants of the magnitude of any such placebo effect. A systematic literature search was undertaken for RCTs in people with fibromyalgia that included a placebo and/or a no-treatment (observation only or waiting list) control group. Placebo effect size (ES) for pain and other outcomes was measured as the improvement of each outcome from baseline divided by the standard deviation of the change from baseline. This effect was compared with changes in the no-treatment control groups. Meta-analysis was undertaken to combine data from different studies. Subgroup analysis was conducted to identify possible determinants of the placebo ES. A total of 3912 studies were identified from the literature search. After scrutiny, 229 trials met the inclusion criteria. Participants who received placebo in the RCTs experienced significantly better improvements in pain, fatigue, sleep quality, physical function, and other main outcomes than those receiving no treatment. The ES of placebo for pain relief was clinically moderate (0.53, 95%CI 0.48 to 0.57). The ES increased with increasing strength of the active treatment, increasing participant age and higher baseline pain severity, but decreased in RCTS with more women and with longer duration of fibromyalgia. In addition, placebo treatment in RCTs is effective in fibromyalgia. A number of factors (expected strength of treatment, age, gender, disease duration) appear to influence the magnitude of the placebo effect in this condition.

Measuring Institutional Performance in Higher Education.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyerson, Joel W., Ed.; Massy, William F., Ed.

This collection of seven essays from the Stanford Forum for Higher Education Futures focuses on how downsizing, quality management, and reengineering have are affecting higher education. An introductory paper, "Introduction: Change in Higher Education: Its Effect on Institutional Performance," (Joel W. Meyerson and Sandra L. Johnson)…

Comparative Effectiveness of Disease Management With Information Communication Technology for Preventing Hospitalization and Readmission in Adults With Chronic Congestive Heart Failure.

Science.gov (United States)

Aronow, Wilbert S; Shamliyan, Tatyana A

2018-06-01

Critical appraisal of all available evidence regarding the role of noninvasive communication technology for improving patient survival and reducing hospital admissions in adults with chronic heart failure (HF). Systematic literature review and grading of the quality of evidence according to the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Working Group approach. Four databases were searched in March 2018 to find 2 high-quality meta-analyses and published and unpublished data from 58 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared noninvasive communication technology with usual care in community-dwelling adults with HF. Direct meta-analysis of aggregate data with random effects models. Moderate-quality evidence suggests that there are no differences in all-cause mortality between telemonitoring and usual care, whereas complex telemonitoring that includes transmission of patient parameters and analysis by health care professionals decreases all-cause mortality (relative risk [RR] 0.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.62, 0.99; 2885 people in 12 RCTs). Moderate-quality evidence suggests that telemonitoring prevents HF-related hospitalizations (RR 0.74; 95% CI 0.62, 0.88; 4001 people in 11 RCTs). Moderate-quality evidence suggests that structured telephone support decreases all-cause mortality (RR 0.86; 95% CI 0.77, 0.97; 9535 people in 24 RCTs) and HF-related hospitalizations (RR 0.83; 95% CI 0.73, 0.94; 7030 people in 16 RCTs). Use of a mobile personal digital assistant prevents HF-related hospitalizations (RR 0.58; 95% CI 0.44, 0.77; 674 people in 3 RCTs). The evidence regarding the comparative effectiveness of specific telecommunication devices is insufficient. The results from many completed studies are not available. Clinicians should offer noninvasive monitoring with communication technology applications to all HF patients. Future research should examine comparative effectiveness of technology applications in patient subpopulations

Viscum album L. extracts in breast and gynaecological cancers: a systematic review of clinical and preclinical research

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kienle Gunver S

2009-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Viscum album L. extracts (VAE, European mistletoe are a widely used medicinal plant extract in gynaecological and breast-cancer treatment. Methods Systematic review to evaluate clinical studies and preclinical research on the therapeutic effectiveness and biological effects of VAE on gynaecological and breast cancer. Search of databases, reference lists and expert consultations. Criteria-based assessment of methodological study quality. Results 19 randomized (RCT, 16 non-randomized (non-RCT controlled studies, and 11 single-arm cohort studies were identified that investigated VAE treatment of breast or gynaecological cancer. They included 2420, 6399 and 1130 patients respectively. 8 RCTs and 8 non-RCTs were embedded in the same large epidemiological cohort study. 9 RCTs and 13 non-RCTs assessed survival; 12 reported a statistically significant benefit, the others either a trend or no difference. 3 RCTs and 6 non-RCTs assessed tumour behaviour (remission or time to relapse; 3 reported statistically significant benefit, the others either a trend, no difference or mixed results. Quality of life (QoL and tolerability of chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery was assessed in 15 RCTs and 9 non-RCTs. 21 reported a statistically significant positive result, the others either a trend, no difference, or mixed results. Methodological quality of the studies differed substantially; some had major limitations, especially RCTs on survival and tumour behaviour had very small sample sizes. Some recent studies, however, especially on QoL were reasonably well conducted. Single-arm cohort studies investigated tumour behaviour, QoL, pharmacokinetics and safety of VAE. Tumour remission was observed after high dosage and local application. VAE application was well tolerated. 34 animal experiments investigated VAE and isolated or recombinant compounds in various breast and gynaecological cancer models in mice and rats. VAE showed increase of survival

Intramedullary nails versus sliding hip screws for AO/OTA 31-A2 trochanteric fractures in adults: A meta-analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Qianzheng; Xu, Xiaodong; Yang, Xi; Chen, Xingzuo; Wang, Liqiang; Liu, Chenggang; Lin, Peng

2017-07-01

The optimum treatment with intramedullary nails (IMN) or sliding hip screws (SHS) for type 31-A2 trochanteric fractures remains controversial. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to compare IMN with SHS in AO/OTA 31-A2 trochanteric fractures. Databases including PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase were searched to identify RCTs published before December 2016, which compared IMN with SHS for intraoperative and postoperative outcomes in AO/OTA 31-A2 trochanteric fractures. A total of 909 patients from six RCTs were subjected to the meta-analysis. The results showed that the IMN group was associated with less operative blood loss, leg shortening, wound infections, length of hospital stay, and days to mobilization with walking aids and also yielded a higher Parker score as compared to the SHS group. No significant difference was seen in the other parameters including operative details, fracture fixation complications, postoperative complications, and 1 year mortality. IMN fixation was found to be the superior treatment of choice for 31-A2 trochanteric fractures as compared with SHS fixation in our meta-analysis. The adverse effects appeared comparable between the two groups. However, due to the variations in the included studies, more large-sample, measures-unified, and high-quality RCTs are needed to validate these conclusions. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Improved quality monitoring of multi-center acupuncture clinical trials in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zheng Hui

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In 2007, the Chinese Science Division of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM convened a special conference to discuss quality control for TCM clinical research. Control and assurance standards were established to guarantee the quality of clinical research. This paper provides practical guidelines for implementing strict and reproducible quality control for acupuncture randomized controlled trials (RCTs. Methods A standard quality control program (QCP was established to monitor the quality of acupuncture trials. Case report forms were designed; qualified investigators, study personnel and data management personnel were trained. Monitors, who were directly appointed by the project leader, completed the quality control programs. They guaranteed data accuracy and prevented or detected protocol violations. Clinical centers and clinicians were audited, the randomization system of the centers was inspected, and the treatment processes were audited as well. In addition, the case report forms were reviewed for completeness and internal consistency, the eligibility and validity of the patients in the study was verified, and data was monitored for compliance and accuracy. Results and discussion The monitors complete their reports and submit it to quality assurance and the sponsors. Recommendations and suggestions are made for improving performance. By holding regular meetings to discuss improvements in monitoring standards, the monitors can improve quality and efficiency. Conclusions Supplementing and improving the existed guidelines for quality monitoring will ensure that large multi-centre acupuncture clinical trials will be considered as valid and scientifically stringent as pharmaceutical clinical trials. It will also develop academic excellence and further promote the international recognition of acupuncture.

Complementary and alternative medicine for rheumatic diseases: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

Science.gov (United States)

Phang, Jie Kie; Kwan, Yu Heng; Goh, Hendra; Tan, Victoria Ie Ching; Thumboo, Julian; Østbye, Truls; Fong, Warren

2018-04-01

To summarize all good quality randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) interventions in patients with rheumatic diseases. A systematic literature review guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) was performed. We excluded non-English language articles and abstract-only publications. Due to the large number of RCTs identified, we only include "good quality" RCTs with Jadad score of five. We identified 60 good quality RCTs using CAM as intervention for patients with rheumatic diseases: acupuncture (9), Ayurvedic treatment (3), homeopathic treatment (3), electricity (2), natural products (31), megavitamin therapies (8), chiropractic or osteopathic manipulation (3), and energy healing therapy (1). The studies do not seem to suggest a particular type of CAM is effective for all types for rheumatic diseases. However, some CAM interventions appear to be more effective for certain types of rheumatic diseases. Acupuncture appears to be beneficial for osteoarthritis but not rheumatoid arthritis. For the other therapeutic modalities, the evidence base either contains too few trials or contains trials with contradictory findings which preclude any definitive summary. There were only minor adverse reactions observed for CAM interventions presented. We identified 60 good quality RCTs which were heterogenous in terms of interventions, disease, measures used to assess outcomes, and efficacy of CAM interventions. Evidence indicates that some CAM therapies may be useful for rheumatic diseases, such as acupuncture for osteoarthritis. Further research with larger sample size is required for more conclusive evidence regarding efficacy of CAM interventions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Dose-specific effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) on experimental pain: a systematic review.

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Claydon, Leica S; Chesterton, Linda S; Barlas, Panos; Sim, Julius

2011-09-01

To determine the hypoalgesic effects of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) parameter combinations on experimental models in healthy humans. Searches were performed using the electronic databases Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, AMED, and Web of Science (from inception to December 2009). Manual searches of journals and reference lists of retrieved trials were also performed. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in the review if they compared the hypoalgesic effect of TENS relative with placebo and control, using an experimental pain model in healthy human participants. Two reviewers independently selected the trials, assessed their methodologic quality and extracted data. Forty-three RCTs were eligible for inclusion. A best evidence synthesis revealed: Overall "conflicting" (inconsistent findings in multiple RCTs) evidence of TENS efficacy on experimental pain irrespective of TENS parameters used. Overall intense TENS has "moderate" evidence of efficacy (1 high-quality and 2 low-quality trials). Conventional TENS has overall conflicting evidence of efficacy, this is derived from "strong" evidence of efficacy (generally consistent findings in multiple high-quality RCTs) on pressure pain but strong evidence of inefficacy on other pain models. "Limited" evidence (positive findings from 1 RCT) of hypoalgesia exists for some novel parameters. Low-intensity, low-frequency, local TENS has strong evidence of inefficacy. Inappropriate TENS (using "barely perceptible" intensities) has moderate evidence of inefficacy. The level of hypoalgesic efficacy of TENS is clearly dependent on TENS parameter combination selection (defined in terms of intensity, frequency, and stimulation site) and experimental pain model. Future clinical RCTs may consider these TENS dose responses.

Physical therapy interventions for knee pain secondary to osteoarthritis: a systematic review.

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Wang, Shi-Yi; Olson-Kellogg, Becky; Shamliyan, Tatyana A; Choi, Jae-Young; Ramakrishnan, Rema; Kane, Robert L

2012-11-06

Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of disability. Nonsurgical treatment is a key first step. Systematic literature review of physical therapy (PT) interventions for community-dwelling adults with knee osteoarthritis. MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, the Physiotherapy Evidence Database, Scirus, Allied and Complementary Medicine, and the Health and Psychosocial Instruments bibliography database. 193 randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) published in English from 1970 to 29 February 2012. Means of outcomes, PT interventions, and risk of bias were extracted to pool standardized mean differences. Disagreements between reviewers abstracting and checking data were resolved through discussion. Meta-analyses of 84 RCTs provided evidence for 13 PT interventions on pain (58 RCTs), physical function (36 RCTs), and disability (29 RCTs). Meta-analyses provided low-strength evidence that aerobic (11 RCTs) and aquatic (3 RCTs) exercise improved disability and that aerobic exercise (19 RCTs), strengthening exercise (17 RCTs), and ultrasonography (6 RCTs) reduced pain and improved function. Several individual RCTs demonstrated clinically important improvements in pain and disability with aerobic exercise. Other PT interventions demonstrated no sustained benefit. Individual RCTs showed similar benefits with aerobic, aquatic, and strengthening exercise. Adverse events were uncommon and did not deter participants from continuing treatment. Variability in PT interventions and outcomes measures hampered synthesis of evidence. Low-strength evidence suggested that only a few PT interventions were effective. Future studies should compare combined PT interventions (which is how PT is generally administered for pain associated with knee osteoarthritis). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Cost-efficiency of knowledge creation: randomized controlled trials vs. observational studies.

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Struck, Rafael; Baumgarten, Georg; Wittmann, Maria

2014-04-01

This article reviews traditional and current perspectives on randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies relative to the economic implications for public healthcare stakeholders. It takes an average of 17 years to bring 14% of original research into clinical practice. Results from high-quality observational studies may complement limited RCTs in primary and secondary literature bases, and enhance the incorporation of sound evidence-based guidelines. Observational findings from comprehensive medical databases may offer valuable clues on the effectiveness and relevance of public healthcare interventions. Major expenditures associated with RCTs relate to recruitment, inappropriate site selection, conduct and reporting. Application of business strategies and economic evaluation tools, in addition to the planning and conduct of RCTs, may enhance clinical trial site performances. Considering the strengths and limitations of each study type, clinical researchers should explore the contextual worthiness of either design in promulgating knowledge. They should focus on quality of conduct and reporting that may allow for the liberation of limited public and private clinical research funding.

[Formula: see text]Higher cortisol is associated with poorer executive functioning in preschool children: The role of parenting stress, parent coping and quality of daycare.

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Wagner, Shannon L; Cepeda, Ivan; Krieger, Dena; Maggi, Stefania; D'Angiulli, Amedeo; Weinberg, Joanne; Grunau, Ruth E

2016-01-01

Child executive functions (cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, working memory) are key to success in school. Cortisol, the primary stress hormone, is known to affect cognition; however, there is limited information about how child cortisol levels, parenting factors and child care context relate to executive functions in young children. The aim of this study was to examine relationships between child cortisol, parenting stress, parent coping, and daycare quality in relation to executive functions in children aged 3-5 years. We hypothesized that (1) poorer executive functioning would be related to higher child cortisol and higher parenting stress, and (2) positive daycare quality and positive parent coping style would buffer the effects of child cortisol and parenting stress on executive functions. A total of 101 children (53 girls, 48 boys, mean age 4.24 years ±0.74) with complete data on all measures were included. Three saliva samples to measure cortisol were collected at the child's daycare/preschool in one morning. Parents completed the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function - Preschool Version (BRIEF-P), Parenting Stress Index (PSI), and Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ). The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale - Revised (ECERS-R) was used to measure the quality of daycare. It was found that children with poorer executive functioning had higher levels of salivary cortisol, and their parents reported higher parenting stress. However, parent coping style and quality of daycare did not modulate these relationships. Identifying ways to promote child executive functioning is an important direction for improving school readiness.

Secular trends in impact factor of neonatology publications over a 10-year period.

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Marom, Ronella; Mimouni, Francis B; Cohen, Shlomi; Lubetzky, Ronit; Mandel, Dror

2012-10-01

  To test the hypotheses that published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in neonatology with negative results (NR) are more likely to be published in journals with lower impact factor (IF) than those with positive results (PR); that there is an increase in the number of yearly published RCTs; that studies with large sample sizes are likely to be published in journals with higher IF.   We used all English-written RCTs registered in MEDLINE between 1/1/2001-31/12/2010 in the field of neonatology. Each RCT was classified as having a PR or NR. IF of each journal was determined for the year of publication.   We identified 329 RCTs. Yearly number of RCTs varied between 19 and 46, with no significant consistent linear increase over the years. There was no significant change over the years in average IF or in average patient size. IF and sample size of the studies were not significantly higher in studies with PR than in studies with NR.   The number of RCTs per year in the field of neonatology has stabilized in the past 10 years, and RCTs with positive or negative results are published in journals of similar IF. © 2012 The Author(s)/Acta Paediatrica © 2012 Foundation Acta Paediatrica.

Identifying Important Gaps in Randomized Controlled Trials of Adult Cardiac Arrest Treatments: A Systematic Review of the Published Literature

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Sinha, Shashank S.; Sukul, Devraj; Lazarus, John J.; Polavarapu, Vivek; Chan, Paul S.; Neumar, Robert W.; Nallamothu, Brahmajee K.

2016-01-01

Background Cardiac arrests are a major public health concern worldwide. The extent and types of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) – our most reliable source of clinical evidence – conducted in these high-risk patients over recent years are largely unknown. Methods and Results We performed a systematic review, identifying all RCTs published in PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library from 1995 to 2014 that focused on acute treatment of non-traumatic cardiac arrest in adults. We then extracted data on the setting of study populations, types and timing of interventions studied, risk of bias, outcomes reported and how these factors have changed over time. Over this twenty-year period, 92 RCTs were published containing 64,309 patients (median, 225.5 per trial). Of these, 81 RCTs (88.0%) involved out-of-hospital cardiac arrest whereas 4 (4.3%) involved in-hospital cardiac arrest and 7 (7.6%) included both. Eighteen RCTs (19.6%) were performed in the U.S., 68 (73.9%) were performed outside the U.S., and 6 (6.5%) were performed in both settings. Thirty-eight RCTs (41.3%) evaluated drug therapy, 39 (42.4%) evaluated device therapy, and 15 (16.3%) evaluated protocol improvements. Seventy-four RCTs (80.4%) examined interventions during the cardiac arrest, 15 (16.3%) examined post-cardiac arrest treatment, and 3 (3.3%) studied both. Overall, reporting of risk of bias was limited. The most common outcome reported was ROSC: 86 (93.5%) with only 22 (23.9%) reporting survival beyond 6 months. Fifty-three RCTs (57.6%) reported global ordinal outcomes whereas 15 (16.3%) reported quality-of-life. RCTs in the last 5 years were more likely to be focused on protocol improvement and post-cardiac arrest care. Conclusions Important gaps in RCTs of cardiac arrest treatments exist, especially those examining in-hospital cardiac arrest, protocol improvement, post-cardiac arrest care, and long-term or quality-of-life outcomes. PMID:27756794

Possibilities for Using TAM and Technology Frames Models to Assess the Acceptance of New Technologies in the Chilean Higher Education Quality Assurance

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Luis González-Bravo

2015-05-01

Full Text Available This essay reviews the importance of assessing the degree of acceptance of new technologies in the Chilean higher education institutions, as an input for managing quality assurance. Technology Acceptance and Technology Frames models are described, emphasizing their benefits in this field. Understanding and facilitating the process of new technologies acceptance in the organizations, by identifying those elements which hinder it, allows improving the implementation of quality assurance mechanisms in order to make the educational process more efficient and effective.

Measuring the Cost of Quality in Higher Education: A Faculty Perspective

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Ruhupatty, LeRoy; Maguad, Ben A.

2015-01-01

Most critical activities in colleges and universities are driven by financial considerations. It is thus important that revenues are found to support these activities or ways identified to streamline costs. One way to cut cost is to improve the efficiency of schools to address the issue of poor quality. In this paper, the cost of poor quality in…

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Mindfulness-Based (Baduanjin) Exercise for Alleviating Musculoskeletal Pain and Improving Sleep Quality in People with Chronic Diseases.

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Zou, Liye; Yeung, Albert; Quan, Xinfeng; Boyden, Sean David; Wang, Huiru

2018-01-25

we performed the first systematic review with meta-analyses of the existing studies that examined mindfulness-based Baduanjin exercise for its therapeutic effects for individuals with musculoskeletal pain or insomnia. Both English- (PubMed, Web of Science, Elsevier, and Google Scholar) and Chinese-language (CNKI and Wangfang) electronic databases were used to search relevant articles. We used a modified PEDro scale to evaluate risk of bias across studies selected. All eligible RCTS were considered for meta-analysis. The standardized mean difference was calculated for the pooled effects to determine the magnitude of the Baduanjin intervention effect. For the moderator analysis, we performed subgroup meta-analysis for categorical variables and meta-regression for continuous variables. The aggregated result has shown a significant benefit in favour of Baduanjin at alleviating musculoskeletal pain (SMD = -0.88, 95% CI -1.02 to -0.74, p Mindfulness-based Baduanjin exercise may be effective for alleviating musculoskeletal pain and improving overall sleep quality in people with chronic illness. Large, well-designed RCTs are needed to confirm these findings.

[Effectiveness of acupuncture in postoperative ileus: a systematic review and Meta-analysis].

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Cheong, Kah Bik; Zhang, Jiping; Huang, Yong

2016-06-01

To conduct a systematic review and Meta-analysis of the effectiveness of acupuncture and common acupoint selection for postoperative ileus (POI). Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing acupuncture and non-acupuncture treatment were identified from the databases PubMed, Cochrane, EBSCO (Academic Source Premier and MEDLINE), Ovid (including Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews), China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang Data. The data from eligible studies were extracted and a Meta-analysis performed using a fixed-effects model. Results were expressed as relative risk (RR) for dichotomous data, and 95% CI (confidence intervals) were calculated. Each trial was evaluated using the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) and STRICTA (STandards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture) guideline . The quality of the study was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Of the 69 studies screened, eight RCTs were included for review. Among these, four RCTs (with a total of 123 patients in the intervention groups and 124 patients in the control groups) met the criteria for Meta-analysis. The Meta-analysis results indicated that acupuncture combined with usual care showed a significantly higher total effective rate than the control condition (usual care) (RR 1.09, 95% CI 1.01, 1.18; P = 0.02). Zusanli (ST 36) and Shangjuxu (ST 37) were the most common acupoints selected. However, the quality of the studies was generally low, as they did not emphasize the use of blinding. The results suggested that acupuncture might be effective in improving POI; however, a definite conclusion could not be drawn because of the low quality of trials. Further large-scale, high-quality randomized clinical trials are needed to validate these findings and to develop a standardized method of treatment. We hope that the present results will lead to improved research, resulting in better

APPROACHES TO DEFINING THE ROLE OF INFORMATIZATION IN THE SYSTEM OF QUALITY INDICATORS HIGHER EDUCATION

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В Ю Григорьев

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The article highlights the main objectives of Informatization of higher education institutions, including the requirements of normative documents stipulating the creation of an electronic University environment, including an electronic library, an information database and organisation of students to access the necessary learning electronic resources. Analyzed regulatory documents, to make demands for distance and online education, as well as the form of its implementation; the documents governing the form of assessment of students using remote methods and requirements for organizations conducting such assessments. On the basis of the analysis the selected indicators of Informatization, which can be further used in the evaluation of the effectiveness of it development and its impact on the quality of education in universities.

Encouraging Medicare Advantage Enrollees to Switch to Higher Quality Plans: Assessing the Effectiveness of a “Nudge” Letter

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Benjamin L. Howell PhD

2017-04-01

Full Text Available There are considerable quality differences across private Medicare Advantage insurance plans, so it is important that beneficiaries make informed choices. During open enrollment for the 2013 coverage year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sent letters to beneficiaries enrolled in low-quality Medicare Advantage plans (i.e., plans rated less than 3 stars for at least 3 consecutive years by Medicare explaining the stars and encouraging them to reexamine their choices. To understand the effectiveness of these low-cost, behavioral “nudge” letters, we used a beneficiary-level national retrospective cohort and performed multivariate regression analysis of plan selection during the 2013 open enrollment period among those enrolled in plans rated less than 3 stars. Our analysis controls for beneficiary demographic characteristics, health and health care spending risks, the availability of alternative higher rated plan options in their local market, and historical disenrollment rates from the plans. We compared the behaviors of those beneficiaries who received the nudge letters with those who enrolled in similar poorly rated plans but did not receive such letters. We found that beneficiaries who received the nudge letter were almost twice as likely (28.0% [95% confidence interval = 27.7%, 28.2%] vs. 15.3% [95% confidence interval = 15.1%, 15.5%] to switch to a higher rated plan compared with those who did not receive the letter. White beneficiaries, healthier beneficiaries, and those residing in areas with more high-performing plan choices were more likely to switch plans in response to the nudge. Our findings highlight both the importance and efficacy of providing timely and actionable information to beneficiaries about quality in the insurance marketplace to facilitate informed and value-based coverage decisions.

The Paradigm of the Total Quality Management in the Portuguese Higher Education

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Saraiva, Margarida; Reis, Elizabeth

2006-01-01

Total quality management is a process based on a “to do differently” strategy. This strategy implies trying to achieve continuous improvement by sharing responsibilities reducing misused resource and meeting customer’s expectations. Typically, Total Quality Management is implemented in industry and services using a group of principles. The implementation of such principles guides the organizations towards the improvement of quality standards. Deming contributed to the total qua...

Investment Management in Higher Education Institutions

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Jelena Stankevičienė

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Recently, the higher education sector faces a series of changes, such as increased competition, globalization, limited funding. Limited funding does not reveal the full potential of the higher education, too little funding restricts research performance, diminishes the quality of higher education, worsen the conditions for learning and this has important implications for sustainable value creation. The article explores relationship between education, sustainability and financial indicators in order to evaluate the situation and advancement in the European countries, applied multi-criteria evaluation method MULTIMOORA. This method aims to prove that the more encourage investment in higher education and research, the more sustainable the state is and creates sustainable value. The results revealed that the more financially stronger and stable country is, the better position by assessing both the scientific and the sustainability indicators. Financially stable country can give higher investment in education, to promote the conduct of research, create conditions for the formation of high-quality R&D, to prepare highly qualified specialists.

Effects of Funding Sources on Access to Quality Higher Education in Public Universities in Kenya: A Case Study

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John Mutinda Mutiso

2015-04-01

Full Text Available In the last two decades, Kenya has witnessed an exponential growth of students’ enrolment in its public universities and an oscillatory government funding in these institutions precipitating quality concerns by employers on the skills of the graduates to meet industry needs. In education finance, the sources of funds and the size of the resources are key determinants of quality education. The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between various funding sources and access to quality education in Kenya public universities using a case approach. The data collection instruments used were an interview guide, a focus group discussion guide, a student’s survey questionnaire and secondary document analysis. Data was collected from October to December 2014 in the case university from a sample population of 10 top university management staff, 36 heads of department (HoDs and 400 undergraduate students. The study employed the education production function as a basic model of the study. The validity of the data collection instruments was established through scrutiny by thesis supervisors and the reliability test of the students’ questionnaire returned a cronbach alpha of 0.88. F-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA methods were used with aid of the statistical package for social science (SPSS version 2.0.The conclusion of the study was that, the sources of funds had a positive effect on quality though the results were not significant, while government capitation, tuition and other sources of funds were significantly important for the access of quality of education in the institution (P =0.30, P = 0.018, P = 0.000. The study recommended the adoption of performance based funding to enhance quality in higher education.

Acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome: systematic review and meta-analysis

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Manheimer, Eric; Wieland, L. Susan; Cheng, Ke; Li, Shih Min; Shen, Xueyong; Berman, Brian M.; Lao, Lixing

2013-01-01

Objective Evidence-based treatment guidelines have been unable to provide evidence-based guidance on the effects of acupuncture for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) because the only previous systematic review included only small, heterogeneous and methodologically unsound trials. We conducted a new systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to estimate the effects of acupuncture for treating IBS. Methods MEDLINE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health, and the Chinese databases Sino-Med, CNKI, and VIP were searched through November 2011. Eligible RCTs compared acupuncture with sham acupuncture, other active treatments, or no (specific) treatment, and evaluated acupuncture as an adjuvant to another treatment. Our outcomes were overall IBS symptom severity and health-related quality of life. Dichotomous data were pooled to provide a relative risk (RR) of substantial improvement after treatment, and continuous data were pooled to provide a standardized mean difference (SMD) in post-treatment scores between groups. Results Seventeen RCTs (N=1806) were included. We found no evidence of an improvement with acupuncture relative to sham acupuncture on symptom severity (SMD = −0.11, 95% confidence interval: −0.35 to 0.13; 4 RCTs) or quality of life (SMD = −0.03, −0.27 to 0.22; 3 RCTs). Because of the homogeneity of the results of the sham-controlled trials, results were unaffected by restriction to the 4 sham-controlled RCTs that used adequate randomization, blinding, and had few withdrawals/drop-outs. Among RCTs that did not use a placebo control, acupuncture was more effective than pharmacological therapy (RR of symptom improvement=1.28, 1.12 to 1.45; 5 RCTs) and no (specific) treatment (RR = 2.11, 1.18 to 3.79; 2 RCTs). There was no difference between acupuncture and Bifidobacterium (RR = 1.07, 0.90 to 1.27; 2 RCTs) or between acupuncture and psychotherapy (RR=1.05, 0

Is there a causal link between knee loading and knee osteoarthritis progression? A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies and randomised trials

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Henriksen, Marius; Creaby, Mark W; Lund, Hans; Juhl, Carsten; Christensen, Robin

2014-01-01

Objective We performed a systematic review, meta-analysis and assessed the evidence supporting a causal link between knee joint loading during walking and structural knee osteoarthritis (OA) progression. Design Systematic review, meta-analysis and application of Bradford Hill's considerations on causation. Data sources We searched MEDLINE, Scopus, AMED, CINAHL and SportsDiscus for prospective cohort studies and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) from 1950 through October 2013. Study eligibility criteria We selected cohort studies and RCTs in which estimates of knee joint loading during walking were used to predict structural knee OA progression assessed by X-ray or MRI. Data analyses Meta-analysis was performed to estimate the combined OR for structural disease progression with higher baseline loading. The likelihood of a causal link between knee joint loading and OA progression was assessed from cohort studies using the Bradford Hill guidelines to derive a 0–4 causation score based on four criteria and examined for confirmation in RCTs. Results Of the 1078 potentially eligible articles, 5 prospective cohort studies were included. The studies included a total of 452 patients relating joint loading to disease progression over 12–72 months. There were very serious limitations associated with the methodological quality of the included studies. The combined OR for disease progression was 1.90 (95% CI 0.85 to 4.25; I2=77%) for each one-unit increment in baseline knee loading. The combined causation score was 0, indicating no causal association between knee loading and knee OA progression. No RCTs were found to confirm or refute the findings from the cohort studies. Conclusions There is very limited and low-quality evidence to support for a causal link between knee joint loading during walking and structural progression of knee OA. Trial registration number CRD42012003253 PMID:25031196

Teaching Evaluation Is Very Necessary at Institutions of Higher Education

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Daren, Huang

2009-01-01

Government supervision over the quality of higher education by means of evaluations, examinations and verifications, or accreditations is a common international practice in terms of monitoring and controlling the quality of higher education. Many countries stipulate by law that institutions of higher education must submit to evaluation by the…

Using Guasha to treat musculoskeletal pain: A systematic review of controlled clinical trials

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Choi Sun-Mi

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Guasha is a therapeutic method for pain management using tools to scrape or rub the surface of the body to relieve blood stagnation. This study aims to systematically review the controlled clinical trials on the effectiveness of using Guasha to treat musculoskeletal pain. Methods We searched 11 databases (without language restrictions: MEDLINE, Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED, EMBASE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL, Korean Studies Information (KSI, DBPIA, Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI, KoreaMed, Research Information Service System (RISS, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI and the Cochrane Library. The search strategy was Guasha (OR scraping AND pain. Risk of bias was assessed with the Cochrane criteria (i.e. sequence generation, blinding, incomplete outcome measures and allocation concealment. Results Five randomized controlled trials (RCTs and two controlled clinical trials (CCTs were included in the present study. Two RCTs compared Guasha with acupuncture in terms of effectiveness, while the other trials compared Guasha with no treatment (1 trial, acupuncture (4 trials, herbal injection (1 trial and massage or electric current therapy (1 trial. While two RCTs suggested favorable effects of Guasha on pain reduction and response rate, the quality of these RCTs was poor. One CCT reported beneficial effects of Guasha on musculoskeletal pain but had low methodological quality. Conclusion Current evidence is insufficient to show that Guasha is effective in pain management. Further RCTs are warranted and methodological quality should be improved.

Development of a dissertation quality value-added model for humanities and social sciences programs for private higher education institutions in Thailand

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Thanyasinee Laosum

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The purposes of this study were: (1 to evaluate the quality of dissertations in the humanities and social sciences of private higher education institutions, (2 to analyze factors affecting the quality at the student, advisor, and institute levels, and (3 to develop a quality, value-added model of the dissertations. Samples consisted of: (1 750 student dissertations in the humanities and social sciences and (2 753 questionnaire responses consisting of 633 students, 108 dissertation advisors, and 12 senior administrators in the participating institutions. A 5-point rating dissertation evaluation scale was developed for use by the researcher and her assistants. Three sets of a dissertation attribution questionnaire used by the students, advisors, and senior administrators were also developed and administered. Descriptive statistics were used with the 5-point rating data. The 3-level HLM package was used to analyze the quality, value-added model of the dissertations. The findings of the study were: (1 the overall quality of the 750 dissertations was at the standard level; (2 there were 5 factors at 3 different levels influencing the dissertation quality with 1 student factor (favorable characteristics in conducting research, 3 advisor factors (experience in research, up-to-date knowledge in research, and the advisor-student ratio, 1 institutional factor (close monitoring and management system; and (3 the quality value-added model was able to predict the variance of the dissertation quality at 36 percent.

Androgens (dehydroepiandrosterone or testosterone) for women undergoing assisted reproduction.

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Nagels, Helen E; Rishworth, Josephine R; Siristatidis, Charalampos S; Kroon, Ben

2015-11-26

odds ratios (ORs) for each dichotomous outcome. Analyses were stratified by type of treatment. There were no data for the intended groupings by dose, mode of delivery or after one/more than one cycle.We assessed the overall quality of the evidence for the main findings using the GRADE working group methods. We included 17 RCTs with a total of 1496 participants. Apart from two trials, the trial participants were women identified as 'poor responders' to standard IVF protocols. The included trials compared either testosterone or DHEA treatment with placebo or no treatment.When DHEA was compared with placebo or no treatment, pre-treatment with DHEA was associated with higher rates of live birth or ongoing pregnancy (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.30 to 2.71; eight RCTs, N = 878, I² statistic = 27%, moderate quality evidence). This suggests that in women with a 12% chance of live birth/ongoing pregnancy with placebo or no treatment, the live birth/ongoing pregnancy rate in women using DHEA will be between 15% and 26%. However, in a sensitivity analysis removing trials at high risk of performance bias, the effect size was reduced and no longer reached significance (OR 1.50, 95% CI 0.88 to 2.56; five RCTs, N = 306, I² statistic = 43%). There was no evidence of a difference in miscarriage rates (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.29 to 1.17; eight RCTs, N = 950, I² statistic = 0%, moderate quality evidence). Multiple pregnancy data were available for five trials, with one multiple pregnancy in the DHEA group of one trial (OR 3.23, 95% CI 0.13 to 81.01; five RCTs, N = 267, very low quality evidence).When testosterone was compared with placebo or no treatment we found that pre-treatment with testosterone was associated with higher live birth rates (OR 2.60, 95% CI 1.30 to 5.20; four RCTs, N = 345, I² statistic = 0%, moderate evidence). This suggests that in women with an 8% chance of live birth with placebo or no treatment, the live birth rate in women using testosterone will be between 10% and 32%. On

Evaluating Higher Education Institutions through Agency and Resources-Capabilities Theories. A Model for Measuring the Perceived Quality of Service

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José Guadalupe Vargas-hernández

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to explain through the agency theory and theory of resources and capacities as is the process of assessment in higher education institutions. The actors that are involved in the decision-making and the use that is giving the resources derived from repeatedly to practices that opportunistic diminishing the value that is given to the evaluation, in addition to the decrease in team work. A model is presented to measure the perception of service quality by students of the Technological Institute of Celaya, as part of the system of quality control, based on the theoretical support of several authors who have developed this topic (SERVQUAL and SERPERF an instrument adapted to the student area of the institution called SERQUALITC is generated. The paper presents the areas or departments to assess and the convenient size, the number of items used by size and Likert scale, the validation study instrument is mentioned. Finally, it is presented the model that poses a global vision of quality measurement process including corrective action services that enable continuous improvement.

Evaluating Higher Education Institutions through Agency and Resources-Capabilities Theories. A Model for Measuring the Perceived Quality of Service

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José G. Vargas-Hernández

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to explain through the agency theory and theory of resources and capacities as is the process of assessment in higher education institutions. The actors that are involved in the decision-making and the use that is giving the resources derived from repeatedly to practices that opportunistic diminishing the value that is given to the evaluation, in addition to the decrease in team work. A model is presented to measure the perception of service quality by students of the Technological Institute of Celaya, as part of the system of quality control, based on the theoretical support of several authors who have developed this topic (SERVQUAL and SERPERF an instrument adapted to the student area of the institution called SERQUALITC is generated. The paper presents the areas or departments to assess and the convenient size, the number of items used by size and Likert scale, the validation study instrument is mentioned. Finally, it is presented the model that poses a global vision of quality measurement process including corrective action services that enable continuous improvement.

The Cultivating Approach for Quality-ability Combincd Talents in Higher Vocational Education%浅析高职教育素能结合型人才的培养路径

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

修丽娟

2012-01-01

In order to prorate students＇ quality and ability, it cannot be lack of the cultivation of professional quality andprofessional ability, such as profcssional knowledge; professional idea profcssional personality and professional ethics. It alsocannot work without the cultivation of comprehensive quality and univevsal ability, sych as mind and body quality, and innovative quality, The talentsi culfivati6n with quality-ability combinatio in vocational education is good for training students＇ quality and ability. With body of higher vocational colleges employers and higher vocational students, it has the training content of professional ability, other profossional quality, universal ability and other comprehensive quality. It can promote higher vocational students＇quality and ability from five ,approachesi including theory study, practical training, the second classroom and various a cringes, internship, and employment and startup business to figure： higher vocational quality-ability combined talents.%提高学生的素质和能力既离不开专业知识、职业理想、职业个性、职业道德等职业素质和职业能力方面的培养，也离不开身心素质、创新素质等综合素质和通用能力的培养。高职教育素能结合型人才培养能够提升学生的素质和能力，它以高职院校、用人单位、高职学生为主体，以职业能力和其他职业素质、通用能力和其他综合素质为培养内容，通过理论学习、实训、第二课堂和各类活动、实习、就业或创业五条路径来提高高职学生的素盾和能力．塑造高职素能结合型人才．

Intramedullary nail versus dynamic compression plate fixation in treating humeral shaft fractures: grading the evidence through a meta-analysis.

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JianXiong Ma

Full Text Available There is a debate regarding the choice of operative intervention in humeral shaft fractures that require surgical intervention. The choices for operative interventions include intramedullary nailing (IMN and dynamic compression plate (DCP. This meta-analysis was performed to compare fracture union, functional outcomes, and complication rates in patients treated with IMN or DCP for humeral shaft fractures and to develop GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation-based recommendations for using the procedures to treat humeral shaft fractures. A systematic search of all the studies published through December 2012 was conducted using the Medline, Embase, Sciencedirect, OVID and Cochrane Central databases. The randomized controlled trials (RCTs and quasi-RCTs that compared IMN with DCP in treating adult patients with humeral shaft fractures and provided data regarding the safety and clinical effects were identified. The demographic characteristics, adverse events and clinical outcomes were manually extracted from all of the selected studies. Ten studies that included a total of 448 patients met the inclusion criteria. The results of a meta-analysis indicated that both IMN and DCP can achieve similar fracture union with a similar incidence of radial nerve injury and infection. IMN was associated with an increased risk of shoulder impingement, more restriction of shoulder movement, an increased risk of intraoperative fracture comminution, a higher incidence of implant failure, and an increased risk of re-operation. The overall GRADE system evidence quality was very low, which reduces our confidence in the recommendations of this system. DCP may be superior to IMN in the treatment of humeral shaft fractures. Because of the low quality evidence currently available, high-quality RCTs are required.

Misdeeds in the US Higher Education: Illegality versus Corruption

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Osipian, Ararat L.

2008-01-01

Corruption in higher education has long been neglected as an area of research in the US. The processes of decentralization, commoditization, and privatization in higher education rise questions of accountability, transparency, quality, and access. Every nation solves problems of access, quality, and equity differently. Thus, although prosecuting…

The effectiveness of Pilates exercise in people with chronic low back pain: a systematic review.

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Wells, Cherie; Kolt, Gregory S; Marshall, Paul; Hill, Bridget; Bialocerkowski, Andrea

2014-01-01

To evaluate the effectiveness of Pilates exercise in people with chronic low back pain (CLBP) through a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). A search for RCTs was undertaken using Medical Search Terms and synonyms for "Pilates" and "low back pain" within the maximal date range of 10 databases. Databases included the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; Cochrane Library; Medline; Physiotherapy Evidence Database; ProQuest: Health and Medical Complete, Nursing and Allied Health Source, Dissertation and Theses; Scopus; Sport Discus; Web of Science. Two independent reviewers were involved in the selection of evidence. To be included, relevant RCTs needed to be published in the English language. From 152 studies, 14 RCTs were included. Two independent reviewers appraised the methodological quality of RCTs using the McMaster Critical Review Form for Quantitative Studies. The author(s), year of publication, and details regarding participants, Pilates exercise, comparison treatments, and outcome measures, and findings, were then extracted. The methodological quality of RCTs ranged from "poor" to "excellent". A meta-analysis of RCTs was not undertaken due to the heterogeneity of RCTs. Pilates exercise provided statistically significant improvements in pain and functional ability compared to usual care and physical activity between 4 and 15 weeks, but not at 24 weeks. There were no consistent statistically significant differences in improvements in pain and functional ability with Pilates exercise, massage therapy, or other forms of exercise at any time period. Pilates exercise offers greater improvements in pain and functional ability compared to usual care and physical activity in the short term. Pilates exercise offers equivalent improvements to massage therapy and other forms of exercise. Future research should explore optimal Pilates exercise designs, and whether some people with CLBP may benefit from Pilates exercise more than

The effectiveness of Pilates exercise in people with chronic low back pain: a systematic review.

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Cherie Wells

Full Text Available To evaluate the effectiveness of Pilates exercise in people with chronic low back pain (CLBP through a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs.A search for RCTs was undertaken using Medical Search Terms and synonyms for "Pilates" and "low back pain" within the maximal date range of 10 databases. Databases included the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; Cochrane Library; Medline; Physiotherapy Evidence Database; ProQuest: Health and Medical Complete, Nursing and Allied Health Source, Dissertation and Theses; Scopus; Sport Discus; Web of Science.Two independent reviewers were involved in the selection of evidence. To be included, relevant RCTs needed to be published in the English language. From 152 studies, 14 RCTs were included.Two independent reviewers appraised the methodological quality of RCTs using the McMaster Critical Review Form for Quantitative Studies. The author(s, year of publication, and details regarding participants, Pilates exercise, comparison treatments, and outcome measures, and findings, were then extracted.The methodological quality of RCTs ranged from "poor" to "excellent". A meta-analysis of RCTs was not undertaken due to the heterogeneity of RCTs. Pilates exercise provided statistically significant improvements in pain and functional ability compared to usual care and physical activity between 4 and 15 weeks, but not at 24 weeks. There were no consistent statistically significant differences in improvements in pain and functional ability with Pilates exercise, massage therapy, or other forms of exercise at any time period.Pilates exercise offers greater improvements in pain and functional ability compared to usual care and physical activity in the short term. Pilates exercise offers equivalent improvements to massage therapy and other forms of exercise. Future research should explore optimal Pilates exercise designs, and whether some people with CLBP may benefit from Pilates exercise

The impact of onsite workplace health-enhancing physical activity interventions on worker productivity: a systematic review.

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Pereira, Michelle Jessica; Coombes, Brooke Kaye; Comans, Tracy Anne; Johnston, Venerina

2015-06-01

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of onsite workplace health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) programmes on worker productivity. The PROSPERO registration number is CRD42014008750. A search for controlled trials or randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that investigated the effects of onsite workplace HEPA programmes on productivity levels of working adults was performed. Risk of bias of included studies was assessed, and the inter-rater reliability of the quality assessment was analysed. Qualitative synthesis of available evidence is presented. Eight studies were included in the review. There is consistent evidence that onsite workplace HEPA programmes do not reduce levels of sick leave. There appears to be inconsistent evidence of the impact of onsite workplace HEPA programmes on worker productivity. A high-quality study of an onsite combination (aerobic, strengthening and flexibility) HEPA regime and a moderate-quality study of a Tai Chi programme improved worker productivity measured with questionnaires in female laundry workers and older female nurses, respectively. Two high-quality studies and four moderate-quality studies did not show benefit. Studies that showed benefit were mainly those designed with productivity measures as primary outcomes, delivered to occupations involved with higher physical loads, and had higher compliance and programme intensity. The small number of studies and the lack of consistency among studies limited further analyses. There is inconsistent evidence that onsite workplace HEPA programmes improve self-reported worker productivity. Future high-quality RCTs of onsite workplace HEPA programmes should be designed around productivity outcomes, target at-risk groups and investigate interventions of sufficient intensity. High attendance with improved recording is needed to achieve significant results in augmenting worker productivity. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not

(Health-related) quality of life and psychosocial factors in adolescents with chronic disease: a systematic literature review.

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Santos, Teresa; de Matos, Margarida Gaspar; Simões, Celeste; Leal, Isabel; do Céu Machado, Maria

2017-11-23

Background Research on living with a chronic disease (CD) in adolescence is increasing. However, studies on the relevance of psychosocial factors are still needed. The present review, focuses on the impact of living with a CD in adolescence on on quality of life (QoL), health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and psychosocial factors. Methods A literature review of articles identified through PubMed, PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES (these last two ones comprise the Ebsco Host platform) and original peer-reviewed research papers, published between 2010 and 2015, with no restrictions regarding the format/source of interventions, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or types of comparisons were included. Results Eighteen papers met the inclusion criteria and contradictory results were found: the majority showed a significantly higher risk of impairment on QoL/HRQoL and psychosocial factors, whereas others reported a significantly lower risk of impairment (highlighting possible protective factors), or no significant differences. Heterogeneity in the assessment procedures and substantial difficulties in considering adolescence as a single and independent age group, were also noted. Conclusion The higher risk of impairment and the heterogeneity observed between cohorts, reinforce the need to work towards consensual procedures, which allow for more accurate comparisons among studies. Additionally, it conveys the challenge to find more effective interventions. Furthermore, it is highly suggested to routinely assess HRQoL/psychosocial factors within an individualized framework, to considerer adolescents as a single/independent group, to emphasize potential protective factors, and, to increase youth's participation in their own adaptation process and in health promotion in general. These are possible future directions that could enable multidisciplinary responses to improve HRQoL and psychosocial care in adolescents with a CD.

Massification of Higher Education and Students' Accommodation ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Massification of Higher Education and Students' Accommodation: The ... of students' accommodation at the University of Dar es salaam (UDSM) over the past 50 years. ... and the quality of learning, as well as the quality of students' life.

Higher Income and Integration into the Workforce Are the Main Factors Associated with Quality of Life in Acromegalic Patients in Northeastern Brazil.

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GuimarãesSá, Adriana Maria; Ferreira, Pedro Antônio Muniz; Souza, Marinilde Teles; Nascimento, Gilvan Cortês; da Silva Pereira Damianse, Sabrina; de Carvalho Rocha, Viviane Chaves; Dos Santos Faria, Manuel; de Souza Paiva Ferreira, Adalgisa

2018-01-01

To identify the factors associated with quality of life in patients with acromegaly with follow-up at the referral service in neuroendocrinology of the state of Maranhão, northeast Brazil. The Acromegaly Quality of Life Questionnaire (Acro-QoL) was used. Factors independently associated with quality of life were identified using multivariate linear regression, with p values integrated into the job market and quality of life scores in the overall domain ( β = 0.288, p = 0.003), psychological domain ( β = 0.291, p = 0.032), and personal relationship domain ( β = 0.314, p = 0.019). We also observed a positive association with income and the quality of life scores in all domains as follows: overall domain ( β = 0.037, p = 0.003), physical domain ( β = 0.988, p = 0.001), psychological domain ( β = 0.342, p = 0.008), physical appearance domain ( β = 0.270, p = 0.049), and personal relationship domain ( β = 0.315, p = 0.012). For patients with acromegaly living in one of the least developed regions of Brazil, integration into the job market and a higher income were associated with a better quality of life.

Comparison of Registered and Reported Outcomes in Randomized Clinical Trials Published in Anesthesiology Journals.

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Jones, Philip M; Chow, Jeffrey T Y; Arango, Miguel F; Fridfinnson, Jason A; Gai, Nan; Lam, Kevin; Turkstra, Timothy P

2017-10-01

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) provide high-quality evidence for clinical decision-making. Trial registration is one of the many tools used to improve the reporting of RCTs by reducing publication bias and selective outcome reporting bias. The purpose of our study is to examine whether RCTs published in the top 6 general anesthesiology journals were adequately registered and whether the reported primary and secondary outcomes corresponded to the originally registered outcomes. Following a prespecified protocol, an electronic database was used to systematically screen and extract data from RCTs published in the top 6 general anesthesiology journals by impact factor (Anaesthesia, Anesthesia & Analgesia, Anesthesiology, British Journal of Anaesthesia, Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, and European Journal of Anaesthesiology) during the years 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2015. A manual search of each journal's Table of Contents was performed (in duplicate) to identify eligible RCTs. An adequately registered trial was defined as being registered in a publicly available trials registry before the first patient being enrolled with an unambiguously defined primary outcome. For adequately registered trials, the outcomes registered in the trial registry were compared with the outcomes reported in the article, with outcome discrepancies documented and analyzed by the type of discrepancy. During the 4 years studied, there were 860 RCTs identified, with 102 RCTs determined to be adequately registered (12%). The proportion of adequately registered trials increased over time, with 38% of RCTs being adequately registered in 2015. The most common reason in 2015 for inadequate registration was registering the RCT after the first patient had already been enrolled. Among adequately registered trials, 92% had at least 1 primary or secondary outcome discrepancy. In 2015, 42% of RCTs had at least 1 primary outcome discrepancy, while 90% of RCTs had at least 1 secondary outcome discrepancy

Greater Independence in Activities of Daily Living is Associated with Higher Health-Related Quality of Life Scores in Nursing Home Residents with Dementia

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Charice S. Chan

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Health-related quality of life (HRQL for nursing home residents is important, however, the concept of quality of life is broad, encompasses many domains and is difficult to assess in people with dementia. Basic activities of daily living (ADL are measured routinely in nursing homes using the Resident Assessment Instrument-Minimum Data Set Version 2.0 (RAI-MDS and Functional Independence Measure (FIM instrument. We examined the relationship between HRQL and ADL to assess the future possibility of ADL dependency level serving as a surrogate measure of HRQL in residents with dementia. To assess ADL, measures derived from the RAI-MDS and FIM data were gathered for 111 residents at the beginning of our study and at 6-month follow-up. Higher scores for independence in ADL were correlated with higher scores for a disease-specific HRQL measure, the Quality of Life—Alzheimer’s Disease Scale. Preliminary evidence suggests that FIM-assessed ADL is associated with HRQL for these residents. The associations of the dressing and toileting items with HRQL were particularly strong. This finding suggests the importance of ADL function in HRQL. The RAI-MDS ADL scales should be used with caution to evaluate HRQL.

The impact of interventions to improve the quality of prescribing and use of antibiotics in primary care patients with respiratory tract infections: a systematic review protocol.

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Martínez-González, Nahara Anani; Coenen, Samuel; Plate, Andreas; Colliers, Annelies; Rosemann, Thomas; Senn, Oliver; Neuner-Jehle, Stefan

2017-06-13

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are the most common reason for primary care (PC) consultations and for antibiotic prescribing and use. The majority of RTIs have a viral aetiology however, and antibiotic consumption is ineffective and unnecessary. Inappropriate antibiotic use contributes greatly to antibiotic resistance (ABR) leading to complications, increased adverse events, reconsultations and costs. Improving antibiotic consumption is thus crucial to containing ABR, which has become an urgent priority worldwide. We will systematically review the evidence about interventions aimed at improving the quality of antibiotic prescribing and use for acute RTI. We will include primary peer-reviewed and grey literature of studies conducted on in-hours and out-of-hours PC patients (adults and children): (1) randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-RCTs and/or cluster-RCTs evaluating the effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of patient-targeted and clinician-targeted interventions and (2) RCTs and other study designs evaluating the effectiveness of public campaigns and regulatory interventions. We will search MEDLINE (EBSCOHost), EMBASE (Elsevier), the Cochrane Library (Wiley), CINHAL (EBSCOHost), PsychINFO (EBSCOHost), Web of Science, LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences), TRIP (Turning Research Into Practice) and opensgrey.eu without language restriction. We will also search the reference lists of included studies and relevant reviews. Primary outcomes include the rates of (guideline-recommended) antibiotics prescribed and/or used. Secondary outcomes include immediate or delayed use of antibiotics, and feasibility and acceptability outcomes. We will assess study eligibility and risk of bias, and will extract data. Data permitting, we will perform meta-analyses. This is a systematic review protocol and so formal ethical approval is not required. We will not collect confidential, personal or primary data. The findings of this

A critical appraisal of the reporting quality of published randomized controlled trials in the fall injuries.

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Asghari Jafarabadi, Mohammad; Sadeghi-Bazrgani, Homayoun; Dianat, Iman

2018-06-01

To evaluate the quality of reporting in published randomized controlled trials (RTCs) in the field of fall injuries. The 188 RTCs published between 2001 and 2011, indexed in EMBASE and Medline databases were extracted through searching by appropriate keywords and EMTree classification terms. The evaluation trustworthiness was assured through parallel evaluations of two experts in epidemiology and biostatistics. About 40%-75% of papers had problems in reporting random allocation method, allocation concealment, random allocation implementation, blinding and similarity among groups, intention to treat and balancing benefits and harms. Moreover, at least 10% of papers inappropriately/not reported the design, protocol violations, sample size justification, subgroup/adjusted analyses, presenting flow diagram, drop outs, recruitment time, baseline data, suitable effect size on outcome, ancillary analyses, limitations and generalizability. Considering the shortcomings found and due to the importance of the RCTs for fall injury prevention programmes, their reporting quality should be improved.

Electroconvulsive Therapy for Agitation in Schizophrenia: Metaanalysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

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Gu, Xiaojing; Zheng, Wei; Guo, Tong; Ungvari, Gabor S; Chiu, Helen F K; Cao, Xiaolan; D'Arcy, Carl; Meng, Xiangfei; Ning, Yuping; Xiang, Yutao

2017-02-25

Agitation poses a significant challenge in the treatment of schizophrenia. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a fast, effective and safe treatment for a variety of psychiatric disorders, but no meta-analysis of ECT treatment for agitation in schizophrenia has yet been reported. To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of ECT alone or ECT-antipsychotics (APs) combination for agitation in schizophrenia. Systematic literature search of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was performed. Two independent evaluators selected studies, extracted data about outcomes and safety with available data, conducted quality assessment and data synthesis. The Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to judge the level of the overall evidence of main outcomes. Seven RCTs from China, including ECT alone (4 RCTs with 5 treatment arms, n=240) and ECT-APs combination (3 RCTs, n=240), were identified. Participants in the studies were on average 34.3(4.5) years of age and lasted an average of 4.3(3.1) weeks of treatment duration. All 7 RCTs were non-blinded, and were rated as low quality based on Jadad scale. Meta-analysis of the pooled sample found no significant difference in the improvement of the agitation sub-score of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) when ECT alone (weighted mean difference=-0.90, (95% confidence interval (CI): -2.91, 1.11), p=0.38) or ECT-APs combination (WMD=-1.34, (95%CI: -4.07, 1.39), p=0.33) compared with APs monotherapy. However, ECT alone was superior to APs monotherapy regarding PANSS total score (WMD=-7.13, I 2 =0%, p =0.004) and its excitement sub-score (WMD=-1.97, p agitation related outcomes in schizophrenia patients. However, ECT alone or ECT-APs combination were associated with significant reduction in the PANSS total score. High-quality RCTs are needed to confirm the current interpretations.

A MODEL OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGY FOR A QUALITY LEARNING IN ISLAMIC HIGHER EDUCATION (IHE

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Ara Hidayat

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The quality of Islamic education is generally influenced by several factors, among other things: leadership, organizational culture, lecturercompetence versus faculty student ratio, dynamic curriculum, library collections and learning facilities. The factors above are most likely to influence and impact the quality of education process in general. Developing a model of management strategy for quality learning is a minimal effort to improve quality graduates of a university. The model was developed on the basis of the following theories: (1 transformative leadership (Tichy and Devana (1997, (2 strategy of learning organization, (Peter (2002, and (3 a quality-based management (Griffin, 2004. Furthermore, the model shares the following characteristics: (1 a quality learning emerges from an effective and efficient management of academic service; (2 developing management of a quality learning is continuous lecture development; (3 lecture plays an important role in developing a quality learning; (4 a quality learning stipulates that a leader be loyal and committed to their job, wise and have a sense of democracy.

Efficacy of lamivudine and thymosin alpha-1 combination therapy in treatment of HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B: a meta-analysis

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QI Youtao

2014-07-01

Full Text Available ObjectiveTo evaluate the efficacy of lamivudine and thymosin alpha-1 combination therapy in the treatment of HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB by meta-analysis. MethodsRandomized controlled trials (RCTs of lamivudine and thymosin alpha-1 combination therapy in treatment of HBeAg-positive CHB (follow-up for at least 24 weeks, from January 1998 to date, were identified by searching Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, EBSCO, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and CQVIP. Lamivudine monotherapy RCTs were searched for in the same way as control tests. Efficacy was measured by odds ratio. Meta-analysis was carried out with RevMan 5.2 software. ResultsNine RCTs involving 600 patients were included, with 320 cases in the combination therapy group and 280 in the control group. At the end of follow-up, the combination therapy group had significantly higher serum ALT recovery rate, HBV-DNA negative conversion rate, HBeAg negative conversion rate, and HBeAg seroconversion rate than the control group (P＜0.01 for all, with pooled odds ratios (95% confidence intervals of 4.84 (3.28, 7.16, 2.09 (1.45, 3.01, 5.32 (3.35, 8.46, and 6.22 (3.78, 10.25, respectively. ConclusionLamivudine and thymosin alpha-1 combination therapy is more likely to achieve sustained response rate than lamivudine monotherapy for HBeAg-positive CHB. More RCTs of high quality and large scale are required to verify this conclusion．

Bifidobacterium breve M-16V as a Probiotic for Preterm Infants: A Strain-Specific Systematic Review.

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Athalye-Jape, Gayatri; Rao, Shripada; Simmer, Karen; Patole, Sanjay

2017-08-01

Bifidobacterium breve M-16V has been used as a probiotic in preterm infants. Probiotic strain-specific data are essential to guide clinical practice. To assess effects of B breve M-16V in preterm neonates. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs of B breve M-16V in preterm infants was conducted. Multiple databases, proceedings of Pediatric Academy Society, and other relevant conferences were searched in September 2016 and on January 5, 2017. Five RCTs (n = 482) and 4 non-RCTs (n = 2496) were included. Of the 5 RCTs, 4 carried high/unclear risk of bias in many domains. Meta-analysis (fixed effects model) of RCTs showed no significant benefits on stage ≥2 necrotizing enterocolitis, late-onset sepsis, mortality, and postnatal age at full feeds. Meta-analysis of non-RCTs showed significant benefits on (1) late-onset sepsis-3 studies (n = 2452), odds ratio = 0.56 (95% CI, 0.45-0.71), P breve M-16V. On Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation analysis, the overall quality of evidence was deemed very low. Current evidence is limited regarding the potential of B breve M-16V in preterm neonates. Adequately powered, preferably cluster RCTs are needed to confirm these findings.

Public higher education in the Philippines

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Cardozier, V. R.

1984-06-01

Clearly, the national government of the Philippines has decided to increase the number and comprehensiveness of its public colleges and universities. While private colleges and universities are likely to dominate higher education in the Philippines for the remainer of this century, it appears that public, tax-supported higher education will become increasingly available there. The Philippines is not a wealthy country but it is devoting a substantial portion of its national resources to public higher education. In 1983, higher education received 2.85 percent of the national budget, a figure that has been rising for years. Compared with some highly developed countries, this is not a large percentage, but for a country that has traditionally relied on private higher education, it is a major and growing investment in the public sector. While many of the better universities in the Philippines are private, many other private educational institutions are small and struggling. As their financial resources become more limited, and as less expensive, tax-supported higher education becomes increasingly available, a lot of the struggling private colleges will probably close. This process is also being hastened by actions of the government to upgrade quality, for example in the case of the many private colleges that developed after World War II. In an attempt to improve the academic quality of these marginal institutions, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports has been given extensive authority, and while its intrusion into private institutions has been modest by some measures, its requirements are affecting them all and will speed the demise of some. This is bound to lead to a stronger role for public higher education in the Philippines, a country that is striving diligently to improve the education and hence the quality of life of its people.

Cardiovascular Risks of Exogenous Testosterone Use Among Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

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Alexander, G Caleb; Iyer, Geetha; Lucas, Eleanor; Lin, Dora; Singh, Sonal

2017-03-01

We sought to evaluate whether exogenous testosterone therapy is associated with increased risk of serious cardiovascular events as compared with other treatments or placebo. Study selection included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies that enrolled men aged 18 years or older receiving exogenous testosterone for 3 or more days. The primary outcomes were death due to all causes, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Secondary outcomes were other hard clinical outcomes such as heart failure, arrhythmia, and cardiac procedures. Peto odds ratio was used to pool data from RCTs. Risk of bias was assessed using Cochrane Collaboration tool and Newcastle and Ottawa scale, respectively. The strength of evidence was evaluated using the Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation Working Group approach. A total of 39 RCTs and 10 observational studies were included. Meta-analysis was done using data from 30 RCTs. Compared with placebo, exogenous testosterone treatment did not show any significant increase in risk of myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR] 0.87; 95% CI, 0.39-1.93; 16 RCTs), stroke (OR 2.17; 95% CI, 0.63-7.54; 9 RCTs), or mortality (OR 0.88; 95% CI, 0.55-1.41; 20 RCTs). Observational studies showed marked clinical and methodological heterogeneity. The evidence was rated as very low quality due to the high risk of bias, imprecision, and inconsistency. We did not find any significant association between exogenous testosterone treatment and myocardial infarction, stroke, or mortality in randomized controlled trials. The very low quality of the evidence precludes definitive conclusion on the cardiovascular effects of testosterone. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area: The Emergence of a German Market for Quality Assurance Agencies

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Serrano-Velarde, Kathia E.

2008-01-01

Most European countries have introduced systematic quality assurance as part of an overall governance reform aimed at enhancing universities' autonomy. Researchers and economic entrepreneurs tend, however, to underestimate the political dimension of accreditation and evaluation when they consider the contribution of quality assurance to the…

Current evidence of percutaneous nucleoplasty for the cervical herniated disk: a systematic review.

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Wullems, Jorgen A; Halim, Willy; van der Weegen, Walter

2014-07-01

Although percutaneous cervical nucleoplasty (PCN) has been shown to be both safe and effective, its application is still debated. PCN applied in disk herniation has not been systematically reviewed before, resulting in a limited insight into its effectiveness and safety, and the quality of available evidence. Therefore, we systematically reviewed the evidence on the efficacy and safety of PCN in patients with a (contained) herniated disk. MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library (Central Register of Controlled Trials) were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and nonrandomized studies using the following keywords: "Nucleoplasty," "Cervical," "Hernia," "Herniation," "Prolapse," "Protrusion," "Intervertebral disk," and "Percutaneous disk decompression." First, all articles were appraised for methodological quality, and then, RCTs were graded for the level of evidence according a best-evidence synthesis, because a meta-analysis was not possible. Finally, the RCTs' applicability and clinical relevance also was assessed. Of 75 identified abstracts, 10 full-text articles were included (3 RCTs and 7 nonrandomized studies). These studies represented a total of 1021 patients: 823 patients (≥ 892 disks) were treated by PCN. All studies showed low methodological quality, except for two. The level of evidence of the RCTs was graded as moderate, with low to moderate applicability and clinical relevance. All included studies showed PCN to be an effective and safe procedure in the treatment of (contained) herniated disks at short-, mid-, and long-term follow-up. However, the level of evidence is moderate and shows only low to moderate applicability and clinical relevance. © 2013 World Institute of Pain.

Higher Education in Ethiopia: Expansion, Quality Assurance and Institutional Autonomy

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Akalu, Girmaw Abebe

2014-01-01